


Off The Mark

by Neverever



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Conventions, Corporate Espionage, Jealousy, M/M, Madripoor, Mutual Pining, Past, Regret, Self-Doubt, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 15:56:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8584576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever
Summary: The Avengers go undercover to retrieve stolen technology at a shady conference in Madripoor. Confronted by his past as a weapons dealer, Tony wonders if he's a good person after all. Steve does not trust Tony's new best friend, the flirty Kashmir Vennema. And the rest of the team just wants to wrap up the mission, even if Scott is having the time of his life.Can the team pull together in time to find the thieves or has Tony walked into a trap he can't escape?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My entry for the Captain America-Iron Man Big Bang 2016. I was partnered with the wonderful and fantasitc Misterdomon whose art for this story is amazing -- [click here for fantastic art!](http://tonysvandyke.tumblr.com/post/153346156391/hey-folks-whats-up-heres-my-imcap-big)
> 
> Thanks to Captain America-Iron Man community for help during the planning stages for the fic. And big thanks to Armsplutonic for all the beta work and cheerleading.

The helicarrier cafeteria had some of the worst food Tony was ever forced to eat. But the entertainment value couldn’t be beat. Like today’s main show featuring the new Avengers liaison with stars in her eyes blatantly flirting with the world’s most oblivious man, Steve Rogers. To be honest, the only tension in the whole scene was whether or not Steve would ever notice. Tony came down firmly on the never-notice side.

Becky or Betsy or Holly — no, Holly for sure — started as the Avengers SHIELD liaison the day before. Tony had a hard time remembering the name of the SHIELD liaisons since the Avengers seemed to get a new SHIELD liaison every week. When his memory failed him, he called them Agent — it worked, was accurate and covered all genders. Holly (or was it Heather?) came highly recommended, with a list of honors, commendations and medals, and with a thirst to do the best job she could. Tony liked her, but the odds weren’t in her favor for lasting long.

He got along great with the agents, but he couldn’t speak for the rest of the team. The agents got tripped up by Natasha’s demanding standards, or couldn’t keep up with Sam, or lost every bet they foolishly made with Clint. Then there was Thor and the Hulk, who had their unique challenges. The real standard was how the agent handled working with Steve -- either they were overwhelmed by Steve’s living legend status or decided with a chip on their shoulder that they could go toe to toe with Steve. 

Neither approach never ended well. Ever.

But once in awhile, an agent fell hard for Steve. Tony stirred his coffee, watching the unfolding drama as the agent-of-the-week attempted to help Steve with his lunch. Steve was perfectly capable of finding food if he wanted it, he didn’t need a sidekick at the hot-food station. He didn’t seem to pick up what the agent was laying down. Steve could be professionally oblivious, given that Steve completely bought into the modern workplace’s expectations about co-worker interactions. Or maybe he just was really oblivious. Steve could be as perceptive as a block of granite at times.

Besides, Steve was likely in between relationships. Natasha said something about Steve and Sharon on the rocks again. Tony never asked for details. He didn’t always want to know the answers. But he knew in his gut that the SHIELD liaison didn’t have a chance.

Anyway, Fury had summoned the Avengers for a top-secret meeting. Tony decided to make a day of it, arriving early, reviewing a number of SHIELD projects for Stark Industries. Steve and Clint came along for their own SHIELD business. For Steve, it was probably training and operations discussions; for Clint, scamming for gossip. 

They all met up in the cafeteria for lunch before the Big Important Meeting. Joining Tony at the table, Steve looked at his register receipt. “Um, they didn’t charge me for the soda.”

Clint peered at the cups barricading Steve. “What -- they forgot to charge you for the tanker-truck size?”

Steve said, “I got a few large sodas.”

“Not the usual Captain America size?” Clint corrected. “Seriously, Steve, you do drink a lot of soda.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” the SHIELD liaison said. “It’s their loss if the cashier made a mistake.”

Steve quirked an eyebrow. “No, I should say something. I’ll be back.”

Once Steve was gone, Agent Whatever said, “I don’t understand why Cap would make such a big deal over a mischarge. Happens all the time.”

“He’s our stick-in-the-mud and if he wants to say something, more power to him,” Clint declared. He narrowed his eyes. “And it’s Captain America to you.”

Annnd, like that, they were on to their next SHIELD liaison. Tony wondered if the new agent just broke the record for shortest time as Avengers liaison. Clint would know, he might even be keeping track on an agent scorecard.

Tony glanced up and saw Steve in conversation with the cashier, someone who was likely the cashier’s manager, and a couple of hangers-on. For once, Steve was wearing wool slacks and a blue silk shirt instead of the uniform. He looked more movie star than an Avenger going to a meeting. Maybe that’s why people were staring. For the record, movie stars did not frequent the helicarrier cafeteria.

Strange that Steve seemed to be a normal person dressed like that. Not Captain America, living legend that once punched out a tank. He looked like a person, a real person with beautiful blue eyes you might meet on the street or at a party or a bar, and ask for their number. Um, not that Tony needed to ask Steve for his number or anything. The guy in the dark wool slacks and blue shirt still was Steve after all. Just a different Steve than he was used to. 

“What’s the deal?” Tony asked when Steve finally returned.

“They had to override the register so I could pay what I owed.”

“That took like 20 minutes to resolve a buck-twenty-five problem,” Clint pointed out.

“It got resolved,” Steve said with a smile. “And it was three dollars. Anyone would have done the same.”

“Every bit counts somewhere,” Tony added. “I guess.”

They waited for Fury and the rest of the team to arrive for their meeting. As Steve and Clint compared ideas about why they had been called to SHIELD, Tony puzzled over why Steve made a point of reporting the undercharge and then insisted on paying when the manager told him not to bother.

Steve said that anyone would have done it. Well, that wasn’t true. Tony knew full well that not everyone would have done what Steve did. Tony chalked it up to Steve thinking the best of everyone. 

Tony drummed his fingers on the table. What did it say about him that he might not have said something about being undercharged by three dollars? He was still a good person, even if he let Steve down over not reporting that he wasn’t charged for soda. He was sure about that. Pretty much. Mostly. Probably wouldn’t bet his life on it. 

He knew he was a good person. Steve knew he was a good person. That was enough. He hoped.

~~~~~

Madripoor.

The Avengers were going to Madripoor. To a shady underground weapons manufacturers conference to be precise.

The team was flying there in Tony’s private jet. He looked around at everyone reading through their briefing notes. The intense quietness of the cabin got on Tony’s nerves. He jumped to his feet to pace back and forth as he turned the mission over in his mind. Either this was monumentally stupid or Nobel-prize-winning brilliant.

“Will you stop that?” Natasha asked, fixing a steely eye on Tony.

Eight hours ago, the Avengers left a meeting with mission in hand and now they were Tony Stark’s entourage. Fury had laid out a fairly simple mission. SHIELD had discovered a black-market source of highly classified Stark Industries SHIELD technology. No one else should have access to that tech. So the Avengers were going undercover at an arms dealer conference, uncover who was the source, stop them, complete the mission and everyone goes home happy. 

Simple mission, simple plan, oceans of possibilities for it to all go horribly wrong.

“This is the strangest mission I’ve ever been on. Steve’s the last person I would have picked for a straight spy mission, no special ops,” Clint complained.

“Thor is worse,” Sam countered. “He has no concept of undercover work.”

Tony reviewed the brief. The whole set-up was that he was going back to the arms business since Stark Industries was floundering and he needed the money. Steve and Thor were his bodyguards, with Bruce, Sam and Scott as the R&D and IT guys. Clint and Natasha were sorting out who was the lawyer and who was the personal assistant. 

“I know a lot about the law. I could bluff my way through anything,” Clint argued.

Natasha laughed. “Sure, criminal law. But we’re talking corporate lawyers and contract law. What does torte mean?”

Clint rolled his eyes. “I know we are not talking desserts. But, yeah, point taken.”

“You’ll make an excellent personal assistant.” Natasha patted his head. “You have the hair and attitude for it.”

Great, his entourage in operation. All he needed to do was hire a scantily clad underwear model or two and he’d be in business. Tony tossed his file down on a seat near him. “No one, and I repeat, no one will believe this.” He put his hands on his hips and glared at the team. “We’re in the papers and all over the internet saving the world daily. People know what we look like.”

Natasha squinted at the team. “Change of hair, a little makeup, different clothes. After that, the average person wouldn’t be able to tell it’s the Avengers undercover. Plus we won’t all be in the same place all the time.”

Clint said, “Yeah, everyone looks at Thor’s Viking helmet —”

“Not a Viking!” Thor shouted from the bathroom.

Clint rolled his eyes. “Everyone looks at Thor’s helmet, cape, and armored sleeves — dressed like a normal person, no one is going to look twice. And you’re going as Tony Stark, celebrity inventor — you’ve got it easy.”

“SHIELD is planting dozens of stories and people to back up your sudden decision to get back in the armaments business. Lots of people have been waiting for you to give up and get back to business as usual so they’ll believe and won’t look too carefully,” Natasha said with a shrug. She held up a tablet. “See, your return to arms manufacturing is trending already.”

Tony didn’t need any of this right at this minute. He impatiently picked the briefing folder and flipped through the pages, the words washing past him. His tech in the hands of the wrong people. They had to stop them. That was the mission. Deep breath. Focus on that.

Steve put a large, warm hand on Tony’s shoulder. “We’ve got your back, Tony.”

“Yeah, thanks. Do you even know how to act like a bodyguard?”

Thor replied, “ ‘Tis easy, Man of Iron, we stand as warriors and intimidate anyone who so dares to look our way.”

“That, cheap suits, aviator sunglasses, slicked-back hair, and earpieces, and Steve and Thor are set. Scott, Bruce and Sam, business casual. Clint’s the problem. Come one, let’s go through the wardrobe.” Natasha dragged Clint towards the back of the plane to rummage through suitcases.

“This will be great,” Sam chattered on. “I mean, I didn’t get a chance to put into practice any of the spy craft I learned at the academy. So this is a terrific opportunity to use some of the spy devices I invented.”

Bruce nodded in reply. Tony shook his head. In his own way, Bruce was worse than Thor. One wrong poke at the absolutely wrong time and the whole mission went up in a puff of big green Hulk.

He glanced down at the briefing folder and saw a bombed-out village, courtesy of his tech. He pursed his lips. This was exactly why he turned his back on his past and became Iron Man to stop these things. Now he had to resurrect his past to stop further atrocities. He appreciated the irony but could pass on the experience.

“Sir, we are beginning our descent. We’ll be landing at Madripoor International in forty-five minutes.”

“Thank you, Friday. It’s showtime, gang.” 

In the back cabin that was also a bedroom, Tony opened his carefully packed suitcases, uncovering his old suits of armor — the splashy, perfectly tailored, bespoke designer three-piece suits of his past. He unearthed the little case with jewel-encrusted cufflinks and tie clips and his case of rare Rolex watches. It didn’t take long to change over to Merchant of Death Tony Stark, complete with flashy red tie. But he stood forever in front of the mirror holding the hair gel. He fluffed up his hair regretfully for one last look before the final part of the disguise.

“Never saw you like this,” Steve said from the doorway.

He tucked in the last rebellious strands of hair. Then took a long look at his masterpiece in the mirror. “I used to dress like this all the time. Not workshop compatible.”

Steve was now in his cheap suit that hung on him like a bag, with his hair parted on a different side and wearing an ill-concealed gun holster. If Tony didn’t know better, he wouldn’t have pegged the guy in front of him as Captain America. Steve had a weird superpower of looking like every other blond, fit guy in his twenties and not standing out in the crowd. 

“You know, this won’t work. Everyone we meet is going to know that you’re the Avengers and I’m Tony Stark slumming for the weekend.”

“We’ll make it a short mission — the conference is only three days — before anyone notices. Natasha was involved in the mission planning and she’s one of the best.”

“Uh-huh.”

Steve frowned. “Are you worried about something, Tony? We can pull out of this mission at any time if you want.”

“No — nothing, just wondering if I have a better penthouse hotel suite than Justin Hammer. I can’t trust SHIELD to make the reservations — we’d be staying in hovels if Fury had his way. Chop, chop, can’t keep the crowds waiting.”

As he waited for the jet to land and for the masquerade to begin, Tony put a finger on the arc reactor to feel the thrum of the machine keeping him alive. And keeping him honest. 

That and the 240-pound, 6-foot-2-inch super soldier at his side.

~~~~~

The limo waiting for them at the airport whisked the team away to the central city district of Madripoor. Tony wished that they had arrived at night, gliding into the island city shining with thousands and thousands of lights and sliding through traffic on busy streets glowing with neon and LED lights in Hightown. But in daytime, anyone could see the trash and the filth in the streets and alleys as they sped towards the Sovereign Hotel.

“Government’s real good at being a tax haven for the world’s criminals, not so good at the trash collecting,” Clint said. 

Tony hadn’t been to Madripoor since he swooped in as Iron Man to stop an alien attack a year ago. The Avengers had never been here as a team. Most of them had never been at all. Clint, Natasha and Steve had run missions here for SHIELD and Steve had first come to the city at the dawn of time for some WWII espionage thing. Tony had fallen asleep during the documentary so he wasn’t all that sure of the details.

“You’re checking us in,” Natasha informed Clint, handing him a folder with the hotel reservations.

“What, me?”

“Personal assistant time,” Tony pointed out. “I’m the money behind the operation, but you handle all the arrangements. He has a credit card, right?”

Natasha replied, “Black AMEX. And remember from now on, we’re on a mission. Don’t use your phones unless absolutely necessary.”

The limo pulled up in front of the hotel. Best thing about his pre-Iron Man days was the travel. Tony had stayed at the Sovereign before and expected the usual excessive luxury. Steve was going to hate every minute of their stay here.

A VIP guest relations representative was already waiting for them at the door with her own army of assistants. The army swarmed past Tony’s entourage headed to the limo to retrieve their luggage. The lobby was full of signs for the Madripoor Expo welcoming guests, listing events, and indicating directions.

“Mr. Stark, The Sovereign welcomes you to the Principality of Madripoor,” she said. “Please follow me.”

She led them to a spacious VIP lounge off the main lobby where they could wait as Clint managed the whole check-in process. Tony was immediately offered a selection of the best spirits on the market. The team lounged on cream and red sofas more expensive than a couple of months rent for a Park Slope studio apartment. Steve was already hovering at a polite distance, like the bodyguard he was supposed to be. Hell, he’d be doing that if he was on or off duty as Captain America.

The representative apologized to Tony, “We’re terribly sorry that you’ve had to wait this long. Ordinarily we would have brought you straight to your rooms. But with the conference and overwhelming number of guests — we’ve been uncustomarily overwhelmed.”

“No, no, I understand,” Tony said. He liked being treated this nicely, not just as the source of pizza bagels and other food. He could get used to this astonishingly quickly.

Clint, after a longer exchange than usual with the hotel clerks, came back to Tony. “Sorry, boss, but we’re in the Ambassador suits.”

“What?” Tony asked. He had counted on one of the penthouse suites. He’d stayed there years ago pre-cave and had fond memories of the view.

“It’s already occupied —”

“Plus, we agreed, Tony, nothing extravagant on this trip, considering the recent drop in stock —” Natasha played up her part as lawyer/advisor to Tony. And she deliberately let this information drop where everyone could hear it. 

“Okay, fine,” Tony muttered. He wasn’t a fan of the whole Tony-Stark-is-slipping-innovation-wise gimmick part of the mission. Bet he was going to have to cautious about his spending too. Business expenses in Madripoor could run into multi-thousands. Appearance mattered, and an impressive personal fortune and spending freely on all occasions would go a very long distance with this conference crowd.

It turned out that Clint, Steve and Thor would share the suite with Tony and everyone else was stuck in a smaller, less luxurious suite on a different floor with Scott and Sam having to share a room. Sam took a dim view on this. “I thought luxury hotel meant big rooms, great showers, and city views,” he said as he looked out over the HVAC and electrical systems on the roof below his room.

“Eh, we’re not going to be here much. And the TV is good,” Scott said cheerfully as he clicked through the channels.

Sam watched Clint and Natasha sweeping the room for bugs. “Seriously, I’d make a great body guard.”

“But Steve won’t make a believable tech guy,” Clint replied.

“What, the whole time in the ice thing? Steve knows more than he lets on. A lot more.”

“He doesn’t care about tech in the ways you do. And he’s more tuned into potential threats and traps than you are,” Natasha said. “He looks like a bodyguard.”

Scott added, “Or a male model. Maybe he could be Tony’s arm candy instead.”

“And Steve isn’t going to let anyone hurt Tony at all in any circumstance, in any situation,” Bruce said. “Can we go shopping? I’d like to upgrade to pants and a shirt. No one is going to take me seriously in this outfit.” He swept his hand over the business suit he’d been given. 

Natasha shrugged. “Fine. We’ll go shopping. Except you, Clint. You’re on duty with Stark.”

~~~~~

Tony Stark had barely been in the hotel for an hour when invitations to dozens of events from a ritzy cocktail party in the Madripoor Lounge to a mixed-martial-arts bout poured in. Thor was outvoted on the MMA fight. 

“We’re here to find information,” Steve said as he broke the news to a visibly disappointed Thor. 

“These parties where everyone stands around eating pitiful unsatisfying amounts of food cannot surely be the only way to find the news we seek. Surely the people who are attending this great festival seek fun and entertainment. They would share their secrets freely once liquor freed their tongues.”

“What we’re looking for is going to be talked about behind closed doors. Just need to find the right door with the right people, and the mission is over,” Tony said. 

“So where do we start?”

Tony reviewed Clint’s list. He crossed off half the events which were clearly nothing other than sales pitches for product. No one who was anyone would go to Justin Hammer’s event, so the boat cruise was off the list. Baintronics’ pool party had promise if only because of the hanging out at a pool option. He could send Bruce to that one, since Baintronics were not an industry leading anything and it was low-key enough that Bruce could make it through the party. 

“Okay, we’re down to three choices,” Clint said.

They were all sitting in the large living room in Tony’s suite, with floor-to-ceilings windows overlooking the harbor. The Ambassador suite was larger than all the apartments Steve had ever lived in. Three bedrooms and a second bathroom lined one wall with the immense master suite with separate sitting area and huge bathroom on the other side. Clint loved the pool table. Thor had already raided the small refrigerator’s tiny stock of snacks and liquor and continued to be massively disappointed in the mission.

“We’ve got Steel Corp’s party at a nearby restaurant, AIM’s reception at the Royal Palace and Museum, or the Ten Ring’s swanky party here at the hotel in the Skyline Bar,” Clint reported.

“Wait — let me see the invite on that one,” Tony said. “Oh, that’s Gene Khan. We should go to that one. Anyone who anyone will be there. Assuming they got invited.”

Clint frowned. “I seriously hate the Ten Rings Corporation more than anyone. No one know what they want or are doing. Total black hole — information goes in, nothing comes out.”

Tony nodded. “All the more reason to go to the Ten Rings event.” He pointed to the invite. “Looks like they have an open bar too.”

~~~~~

Tony’s plan was simple enough. Show up at the party, work the room, find out about the after-parties, get invited to one or several, and find out what’s up. He thoroughly expected to make at least several new best friends.

Steve, already in bodyguard mode, sat reading near the windows in the suite’s main room. Curious about what Steve was reading, Tony sauntered over and realized that he had no idea why he ever cared about what Steve was reading in the first place. But he was intrigued by protective-mode civilian Steve -- not quite the day-to-day Steve he was used to, nor quite fighting Captain America either, but an interesting mix of the two.

“We should get going,” Steve said, folding up the magazine. “We’re already late.” His eyes swept over Tony.

Tony wasn’t sure if he had in fact caught Steve checking him out. Admittedly, he did look like a million dollars in his black bespoke suit, gold and red tie and pocket square, Tiffany cufflinks, and special-edition Rolex. Hmm, it was fascinating idea — Steve checking out the goods — and Tony tucked it away for further consideration. “Nope. We’re going to be fashionably late.”

Steve cocked an eyebrow. “How late?”

Tony checked his Rolex. “I’m aiming for an hour. So we’ve got a half-hour to wait.”

“Right,” Steve replied, clearly repressing whatever he really wanted to say. Likely something about being late to events.

“Eh, that’s when everyone else will show up. Gene would be offended if we showed up on time.”

Emerging from the suite’s guest bathroom, Clint said to Thor, “Fine. After the party, we’ll go to the Sports Book.”

“Indeed, betting on sports can be a fine, entertaining time. Much like when my friends and I wrestled bilgesnipe back in Asgard.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure that betting on football can quite measure up to bilgesnipe wrestling. So, Tony, need any more people for the entourage?”

Tony stroked his chin. “No, this works. No one brings their lawyer to this or their low-level IT and R&D people to these things. I could use an underwear model.”

Clint looked speculatively at Steve. “Steve matches the description. Give me 15 minutes and I can whip up an appropriate outfit —”

“No. Tony needs bodyguards,” Steve said firmly.

“Aw, come on, I’d be a legend back at SHIELD if I got you into a tight-fitting suit or see-through shirt or a speedo,” Clint begged.

“Let’s go,” Tony said. 

“Not before I mike you up,” Clint said. “We can’t use our usual tech but we still have to be cautious.”

The Skyline Bar was at the top of the other hotel tower, not as tall as the main tower with the pricey suites. The bouncer at the elevator waved Tony and his entourage through with no questions. Just another day in the life of a celebrity billionaire-playboy-philanthropist-inventor, his menacing bodyguards and personal assistant. 

“So at this Sport Book, we can bet on any athletic competition across Midgard?” Thor asked.

“As long you have money, sure,” Clint responded. 

“Will they take gold ingots? Or do they prefer gems?”

“Shush,” Steve said. 

The elevator opened up to the Skyline Bar with 360-degree views of the cityscape and beyond. The hostess greeted them joyfully, took drink orders from Tony with nothing for the working crew, and sent them on their way. Tony eyed the rapidly growing crowd. It was like Old Home Week. He’d recognized all the people he’d worked with and competed against for years before the cave and arc reactor.

Phones flashed as Tony glad-handed his way through the crowd. A wave to Aldrich Killian, a handshake for Boris Bullski and a kiss on the cheek for his date. He overheard people gasp and whisper, “That’s Tony Stark. I heard he was coming. But I didn’t believe it. Wow.” He smiled even broader.

Gene Khan came up and clapped him on the back. “It’s been, what, four years, Tony?”

“Long time no see,” Tony said, shaking his hand vigorously. A few cameras flashed. Pictures would be posted all over the internet within minutes. He hoped that that would make Fury a happy man, if that was even possible.

“Hope we can do business.”

“I’m here to make deals.”

“No Avengers business, right?” Khan asked cautiously.

“Pfft. That’s all a hobby now. I’m here for Stark Industries only.” Telling lies came back way too easily.

He had missed this. Lots of business talk, gossip about super-secret inventions, rumors about new discoveries, serious debates over math, trajectories, and distances. He was deep in a discussion about a new neuroscience breakthrough when a woman tapped him on the shoulder. 

She offered her hand. “Hello. I’m Kashmir Vennema, Damocles Research.”

“Tony Stark,” he said, shaking her hand. He hadn’t ever seen her before. She was about average height, but dressed and carried herself like a supermodel. She had a smile tugging at her lips and a smart and mischievous look in her eye. He’d fallen hard and foolishly for people like this before. 

“I know all about you.” She glanced over at Thor and Steve hovering on the edge of the crowd watching him closely. “Didn’t think you needed your own security.”

“Allows me to focus on business.”

She tittered. “Good plan.”

“I haven’t heard of Damocles Research before.”

“We’re a new think tank. Started up about three years ago. We’ve not large, but we’re ambitious.” She flirted with him, smiling and touching his arm and looping a stray lock of black hair over her ear. “You know, the way Stark Industries was once.”

Tony laughed. They moved over to the windows with a nice view of the other hotel tower and the harbor down below, out of the way of the loud crowd. “We’re still the best at what we do.”

“Maybe I can pick your brain about being successful later. And what your plans are to regain lost market share.”

Tony turned to say hello to a passing Ivan Drenko, who had somehow evaded a SHIELD raid on Steel Corp last month. 

“Are you planning to go the robotics lecture tomorrow?” Drenko asked. 

“Of course. See you there?”

Once Drenko moved on, Kashmir said, “I didn’t think you were the attending-lectures type. That’s so boring. Unless you’re giving the lecture.”

Tony shrugged. “I haven’t been to one of these things in years.”

“Then you must have forgotten a lot in your old age,” she teased. “I hear that Obadiah Stane is hosting a yacht party tomorrow.”

“He’s here?” 

She pointed to a table in the corner. “Everyone who is anyone is here.”

Kashmir shared all the latest gossip she had with Tony as they made the rounds at that party. She joked and laughed at the same things that Tony did. Nice to find a kindred spirit at these things. Four years ago, he would already have blown off the party to go clubbing or gambling or a dozen of other things far more amusing than listening to Aldrich Killian drone on about whatever he was talking about. God, he’d prefer to talk to Justin Hammer about his poor excuses for robots.

Probably wasn’t surprising that he ended up at the bar with Kashmir. Khan likely was pleased with the turnout for his party. Tony played with a keychain marked with the Ten Rings logo. Kashmir stood next to him, checking her phone. He hadn’t found out one damn thing about his stolen tech or anything. No one had invited him to a private tech viewing or suggested an under-the-table deal. So far the evening was a complete bust and now his brain was leaking out his ears from boredom.

Finally, Kashmir tucked her phone away in her tiny purse. She tossed her hair and straightened her skirt. “How long do you think this will go on?” she complained.

He checked his Rolex. “Another hour or shortly after they close the open bar.”

“I’m going to die of brain asphyxiation if I stay here any longer. But, you know, business.” She groaned and rolled her eyes. “Can you believe what Killian was saying earlier? Like he knows anything.”

“People can surprise you sometimes.” He drank his bourbon. “But not Killian.” Finally someone who understood him.

“I know. What an awful man.” 

She smiled alluringly. Then she leaned in. “I’ve been wondering all night when you were going to suggest that we blow this party off.”

Tony scanned the crowd. Clint was nowhere to be found. Thor and Steve weren’t too far away, clearly keeping tabs on Tony. “My bodyguards.”

“Oh, right, like anyone is going to try to attack the famous Tony Stark. The bodyguards are just for show, right?”

“I pay them to look after me -- I can’t get angry with that.”

“But they get in the way of having fun. What a drag if they have to go everywhere with you.”

Tony spied Steve standing nearby with his arms folded across his chest, scowling at the crowd. Like everyone and everything was personally offending the Chief Boy Scout of America by existing at an open bar cocktail party. And this was just a cocktail party. Imagine what he’d be like at one of the late-night pool parties. 

Steve caught Tony’s eye and walked over. “Is she bothering you, sir?” he asked.

“What?” Tony shook his head. “Why would you ask that?”

“You called me over.”

“I didn’t,” Tony replied. Kashmir snickered beside him.

Steve glanced from Tony to Kashmir and back to Tony. “Okay. This is a dangerous place, sir, we need to be careful.”

Egged on by Kashmir, who had linked her arm in his, Tony snorted. “Here? At this party? Khan would destroy anyone who was so gauche to harm someone else at his party. We’re safe as houses here.”

Steve nodded tightly. “Let me know if you need anything or need me to contact anyone if you have business.” Steve walked away.

Tony narrowed his eyes. Fine. He didn’t need wet blanket Steve reminding him about the mission and all his obligations and doing the right thing.

“So, let’s go. What did you have in mind?”

“I’ve got this car, so let’s take it out for a spin?” She squeezed his arm. 

“Great idea.”

After talking to Tony, Steve went to get a drink for him and Thor and check in on Clint about his success in tracking down an unfortunate paparazzo who had snapped a photo of Tony and his entourage. When he returned, he handed the water to Thor and scanned the crowd for Tony. 

“Where’s Tony?” he asked.

Thor shrugged. “I saw him with the woman over there.” He nodded in a general way towards the thick of the crowd.

“I don’t trust her,” Steve muttered.

“Because she flirts with our friend and he prefers her company to any other in this room?” Thor replied. He gave a sidelong look at Steve.

“Clint never heard of her or her company. That worries me.”

“Nothing to worry about.” Thor slapped Steve’s back. “Tony is a handsome man, and no doubt the woman was most attracted to him. Is that such a surprise that others would wish to keep him company?”

“No,” Steve said. He frowned. He could see Thor’s point, but still he felt in his gut that something was wrong here with the way the woman had snapped up Tony so quickly and followed him around the room like she owned him. “Wait, I can’t see him.”

“That’s because Tony took off,” Clint grumbled as he walked up to them. “He sent me a text to say ‘don’t stay up, pops.’”

Steve took the phone and stared at the text. “I hope he knows what he’s doing.”

“It’s Tony -- what could go wrong?” Clint said.

Steve handed Clint his phone back and sighed. “You know better. Everything.” He wasn’t going to sleep until Tony was back at the hotel safe and sound and in the bedroom a few steps away from Steve’s.


	2. Chapter 2

The vendor hall opened an hour before the evening kick-off celebration. Sam looked over the gigantic ballroom overwhelmingly filled with booths and signs and loud music. In their trip from the hotel room to the hall, Scott had somehow secured a large plastic bag. “What’s the deal with the bag?”

“How else are we going to stash our swag?” Scott said. He made a beeline to Steel Corp’s stand, smiled and shook hands with a salesman, and swept five pens into his bag. He moved onto the next few booths, collecting stress balls and phone accessories as he went.

Bruce looked at Sam. “We’re supposed to be on the lookout for Stark Tech.”

“We are,” Sam agreed.

“I’m not going to bet on who gets the best booth swag,” Bruce said pointedly.

“Hey, guys — free drink tickets to the bar.” Scott had a string of tickets he flashed at them. “Drinking age is 16 in Madripoor, Sam, but they’re not checking IDs anyway. I hear that they’ll have a hot buffet out on the floor in about an hour,” he said breathlessly.

“I’m eighteen, Scott. So where do we go next?” Sam asked.

“We’re going to the AIM booth — they give out the best stress balls,” Scott said. “We’ll miss out if we don’t hustle.”

Bruce sighed. “I should have gone to the pool party. I’m going to find a nice quiet corner.” He took a couple of drink tickets. “Stop by and compare notes later.”

Sometimes Sam wondered why he’d ever left SHIELD academy to join the Avengers. At least with SHIELD he’d be partnered up real professionals. Not a guy who got gung-ho over free pens. Obviously it was up to him to keep this mission on track. He followed Scott on his way to the AIM booth.

~~~~~

Tony waited with Kashmir for the valet to pull up her car. 

“We’ll just go for a spin and then I’ll get you back for your bedtime,” she teased. 

“What -- we’re not staying out all night?” Tony asked, genuinely surprised. “It’s only 11.”

She gave an exaggerated sigh. “I know. But I have an early morning meeting I really can’t miss. Ah, here’s my car.”

Tony marveled at the bright-red, shiny Lamborghini Aventador SV Roadster at the curb. Kashmir took the keys and glanced over the car. “No scratches, right?” she said, fixing a steely eye on the valet.

“No, ma’am,” the shaken man declared and slunk out of sight.

Tony slid into the passenger seat. “Where did you get this?”

“This little ol’ thing? I’m just borrowing from a friend who lives in the city while I’m here.” She checked the mirror and put on some lip gloss. “Buckle up, Stark.”

She peeled out of the hotel driveway and sped through the city, weaving in and out of the traffic. “If we were out on the highway that circles the island, I could really open this up.”

“What’s stopping you?”

“You know? -- not anything.” She took a right towards the highway.

“What about your meeting in the morning?”

She giggled. “I’ll figure it out then.” She stepped on the gas.

Tony had missed this -- the tech talk, the parties, not giving a care about meetings or obligations or alarms. He had a lot of freedom all those years ago. Past-him would have owned this car, made it rain at the hottest club in town and stumbled into a 9 am meeting held together only by will and coffee.

“Great night, isn’t it?” Kashmir asked with a smile. 

“Yeah,” Tony replied. He trailed a finger along the car leather and watched the flashing neon and streetlights fade away as they drove down the highway bathed in moonlight.

~~~~~

The team met in Tony’s suite in the morning to quickly go over the plan. Natasha rattled off everyone’s assignments. Sam, Bruce and Scott had to tackle the Expo daily events. Natasha had a slate of meetings already for the sheer reason she was Tony’s lawyer. Thor, Clint and Tony were going to a yacht party in the afternoon. Steve was left to his own devices.

“Hey, we’re stuck going to the vendor exhibits and demos for the next few days and Tony goes to yacht parties?!” Scott asked.

“That’s what happens when you’re a celebrity billionaire inventor with several patents under your belt and you’re selling tech that these people want to buy — spontaneous yacht parties thrown by one of SHIELD’s most wanted,” Clint pointed out. “So Tony gets only one bodyguard?”

“And his personal assistant. Hope you’re good at taking drink orders and swimsuit wrangling,” Natasha added.

Steve got why of the two of them Thor got to go. Thor would get bored waiting around and disasters would naturally happen. Like punching a hole in the swimming pool bottom when he cannonballed into the water or terrorizing a local buffet. And that was the least of the problems Thor could get into. On the other hand, Thor was an observant person and could be counted on to notice something. Then there was Clint, who was a highly trained SHIELD operative and could definitely spy on people while fetching Tony’s shoes.

And Natasha was right. The more team members were seen together, the more likely it was that they would give away their cover. Steve would get in the way.

Sam asked, “Are you okay with this?”

“Yes. I’ll figure something out,” Steve replied.

Steve watched Tony as Natasha laid out the rest of the plan. Tony was at his best again this morning. He had a quick meeting before the party so he was in one of those tailored suits worth more than Steve and Steve’s motorcycle put together. He couldn’t help but notice that Tony was gorgeous, all lean lines and elegance in his dark wool suit and bright purple tie, classic but flamboyant at the same time. Which summed up Tony. Tony was suited up for another type of war, demanding respect and attention through the way he carried himself. 

Not quite the same man who fiddled around with robots and made bets with Clint over the amount of pepperoni on a pizza. 

He, on the other hand, was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and with a backpack at his feet. Typical All-American tourist. Not particularly memorable, which was the goal. 

“And remember, don’t use your cell phones to contract other team members unless it’s an absolute emergency. The thief stole tracking algorithms and tech — we don’t know if they are using the tech or selling it. We can’t risk being found out. If this tech gets to AIM or the Ten Rings or Hydra — that could set SHIELD operations back for months, possibly years.”

Scott turned to Sam and Bruce. “Want to head out? There’s a keynote speaker I’ve never heard of speaking in a half hour about how much can technology grow in an over-saturated tech world.”

Sam muttered to Steve, “This is why I left the academy.”

While the team headed off, Natasha asked Steve, “So what’s the plan?”

“I’m heading out into the city. I’ve never been a tourist here, and there’s a couple of places I’d like to see.”

“Be back by dinner — you’ll be switching shifts with Thor.”

In the lobby shop Steve picked up a couple of energy bars, a bottle of water and a Lonely Planet guide to Madripoor with a blurb on the cover telling the reader to get out and see the real Madripoor. That was what Steve aimed to do. 

He had been in Madripoor before on missions for the Avengers and SHIELD. But he didn’t have the opportunity for a visit like he did now. Not that he was happy to be off the hook for a day. He worried about Tony. Thor was the best protection that anyone could ask for, yet concern for Tony was in Steve’s thoughts more than usual. Fundamentally, Steve thought that this mission was ridiculous, put everyone on the team in serious danger, and could have been done more efficiently by trained SHIELD agents. And here they were dangling Tony out like a shiny lure or a carnival prize. 

He’d followed Tony’s lead on this. It was Tony’s tech that had been stolen and Tony was highly invested in getting it back. So Steve went with the plan. But he didn’t like it at all.

Bruce was waiting for him outside the shop. “I’ve got nothing to do until this afternoon. I was wondering if you’d like company?”

“I was planning to go to the Temple of Five Thousand Lights. It’s down by the Harbor, about a mile walk from here.”

“Sounds good to me. All the travel sites say it’s worthwhile to visit the Temple. I have to get back though by noon — there’s an interesting cybernetics presentation this afternoon.”

Outside in the hot humidity of the busy city streets, Bruce asked, “So is any of this familiar?”

Hightown had been rebuilt over and over since the war and he didn’t know the streets. Then again, when he was here in ‘41, one of the tallest buildings in the city was the Temple. “Not much. All this is new since I was here.”

They found the Temple set off from the city streets in a small park with a black, painted metal railing around the lawn and extensive flower beds. Steve looked up from the guidebook at the temple now dwarfed by skyscrapers. “It doesn’t look much different from when I saw it back in the war,” he said. 

Bruce was reading the historical signs posted on the fence near the entrance to the park. “Looks like the Temple went through a meticulous restoration funded by one of Madripoor’s chancellors back in the 1970s.”

“I guess the Temple took some hits over the years.” Steve studied the building closely, looking for the signs of restoration.

“Hmm. I didn’t know anything about the Madripoor resistance that fought HYDRA attempted invasions in World War II. They used the Temple for a base. Did you know them?”

Steve looked at the pictures on the signs. “I knew Hien Luong, their leader. Huh, he became a monk here at the temple.”

“Resistance fighter to monk?”

“When I met him, he was already a devout Buddhist. But Luong loved his country despite everything.” He looked at the peaceful park, remembering the Resistance’s gun emplacements on the grounds. “The government was willing to cave — Luong decided that if he didn’t fight for Madripoor, then who would. I admired that. Luong and his Resistance fighters fought off HYDRA again and again ruthlessly.”

They respectfully removed their sneakers and shoes and Steve set down his backpack in a designated area before entering the temple. A couple of dollars for a donation and Steve had a candle to light in honor of the Madripoor Resistance. He knelt on the temple floor and thought of his friend Luong. Despite the odds, which were not in his favor, Luong had survived the war while Steve hadn’t and spent long years on ice. Tony would have liked Luong and his friends. He would fit right in with the resourceful Resistance fighters.

Luong never talked about his past, but Steve had pieced together that he had not lived on the straight and narrow path. Lots of ways even in pre-war Madripoor to be seduced into trouble and crime. Luong had been able to rise above it all and died a hero in the city he loved. His thoughts drifted to Tony, who was too hard on himself for his past. Steve wished Tony could see how far he’d come since the days Tony was an arms dealer.

Steve took a deep breath. He’d come to find peace and pay tribute to a friend. Instead his thoughts kept circling back to Tony. Who was developing a massive crush on the head of a technology think tank. Anyone could tell that Kashmir Vennema was brilliant, gorgeous, lively, and fascinating. Steve should support one of his closest friends when he needed it. Even if he didn’t have a high opinion of the character of the object of Tony’s affections.

“Thanks for letting me tag along, Steve,” Bruce said.

Still thinking about Tony, he asked, “Do you think Tony might have a crush?”

Bruce peered at Steve hopefully. “I think he’s got his eye on someone.”

“Oh.” Steve looked at the ground, choking down a vague disappointment when Bruce confirmed his fears. “I thought he might. He’s been spending time with Kashmir Vennema -- they met at the party last night. Tony spent the rest of the evening with her and got back very late. He said he was looking forward to seeing her at the yacht party. She’s smart — you’d like her.”

“Um, Steve, I don’t think that Tony —”

Steve checked his watch. “Wait, Bruce, you should head back now for your meeting.”

“Oh, yeah, the meeting.” Bruce shrugged. “I got to be there, mission and all that. Catch you later?”

“I’m going to the Royal Palace and Museum. I’ll see what I can get in before reporting in for my shift later this afternoon.”

Bruce hailed a cab. “We can compare notes later. Have fun at the Museum.”

He thought about his conversation with Bruce while he walked to the Museum. Bruce hadn’t been around when Tony was hanging around with Kashmir. Steve had seen her flirting with Tony enough and the big smile on Tony’s face to know he should get out of the way.

~~~~~

When Natasha did the mission plan, she realized that either Clint or she would have to be the lawyer, with a decided preference for being the lawyer herself. She would be free to investigate wherever her leads took her, and she wouldn’t have to go to Tony’s parties or hang out in the exhibits hall with Sam and Scott. This morning she sat in the hotel coffeeshop in a perfect spot for listening in on conversations. Plus she had a great muffin and coffee. 

“Ms. Anderson?” A man with a Baintronics lanyard interrupted her spying.

She adjusted her glasses (part of the lawyer disguise) and looked up at him. Not a threat -- just an average-looking tech guy. “Yes?”

“I understand you’re Tony Stark’s lawyer?” 

News got around fast. Good. “I’m one of them.”

The man sat down. “I’m Tom Nguyen and I work for Baintronics IT -- we recently bought several Stark Industries disk-array controllers. And I need to register a complaint.” He rummaged around his backpack for several minutes and finally pulled out a circuit board. He handed it over to Natasha. “We installed a controller and next thing we know, it started a fire in a server farm.”

She inspected the board. And felt disappointed -- the board was a typical counterfeit part common in the market, not the missing tech. She pushed the circuit board back to Tom. “This isn’t ours.”

“What do you mean this isn’t yours? I bought Stark Tech -- it’s right there on the board -- that’s what I asked the purchasing department to buy -- ” he sputtered. 

“Okay, Tom, I understand -- you obviously thought you had bought a genuine Stark Industries part. Look here and here -- the labels with Stark on them have been misprinted -- see the jagged line on the edge of the logo? Also the numbers here on the board -- Stark Industries doesn’t use this type of number sequence on their parts.”

Tom sighed exasperatedly. “That’s just great.”

“I’d suggest you sue your vendor,” she offered. “We could provide our tip sheet on identifying counterfeit parts. Where did you buy this?”

Points to Tom, who apparently came prepared. He pulled out a folder full of printed invoices and handed her one. “Here -- Purchasing got the parts from Damocles Express.”

“Thanks -- that doesn’t sound like one of our vendors.” She memorized the invoice before giving it back to Tom. She smiled ruefully at him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.”

After Tom left, she immediately typed in Damocles Express and the address into her phone. Standard reseller website, although the blurb about selling refurbished parts might be concerning. She tapped her pen on the table. What was the relationship with Damocles Research, assuming that they were related? She had some serious digging to do.

~~~~~

Steve wished he felt as sanguine about the whole mission as the rest of the team. He returned back to the hotel after his museum visit. He didn’t remember much about what he had seen because he couldn’t shake his thoughts about Tony and his worries about Kashmir. Maybe it was a good idea that he didn’t go on bodyguard duty for the yacht party. He’d be too overly suspicious for all the wrong reasons and that would undermine the mission.

Natasha and Clint were in Tony’s suite comparing notes about what they had found so far. Natasha frowned at the computer. “I can’t find much on Damocles Research -- what they do or where they’re located,” Natasha said. 

“Or anything about Kashmir Vennema. Or Damocles Express. Or anything else,” Clint complained.

“But we’re just starting on it,” Natasha said. “I’ve got my plans for the rest of the day -- interviewing Stark Industries clients about counterfeit parts -- maybe unearth something about the stolen tech or if there’s a common source for the counterfeits. I think it’s connected.”

Clint added, “At the source -- whatever the source is.”

“How did the yacht party go?”

Clint rolled his eyes and groaned. “If you were Tony -- it went great! Absolutely great! Thor and I spent four hours betting on the fastest seagulls. Thor offered to recite Asgardian sagas, but I’m good on that front.”

“Oh? You couldn’t find any intel?” Natasha asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“No one -- I repeat -- no one was interested in talking about tech or weapons or anything vaguely interesting. Unless Fury really wants to know about the world’s worst supercar dealers. They talked about that a lot -- I have a list if anyone cares. That and tax shelters.”

“Find anything out, Tony?” Natasha asked.

Steve turned around to find Tony decked out in yet another suit. Tony certainly knew how to dress well and Steve couldn’t tear his eyes off him. Tony carried himself differently in his suits -- regally, almost, like the world was his oyster and everyone else was just part of the scenery. As handsome as Tony was in a suit, Steve prefered his hair soft and free of the hair product. He couldn’t run his hand through Tony’s hair like that. Not that Steve would be doing anything like that, ever.

“No. Not anything.” Tony yawned. “The restaurant requires more ties and less cargo shorts, Steve, assuming you’re still the bodyguard on duty.”

“Right.”

Steve stood by in the bodyguard zone while Tony entertained Kashmir, some guy named Ty Stone, and a couple of women at dinner in the Skyline Lounge. And he wished during every single minute of the dinner from appetizers to desserts that he didn’t have super-sensitive hearing. It wasn’t Tony, but everyone else at the table. They gossiped about other people at the conference and talked about money. Lots and lots of talk about money. Steve felt filthy from it all. 

At the end of dinner, Steve quietly took his place near Tony as the group gathered outside the hostess station. One of the women was visibly drunk and couldn’t stand straight. She grabbed onto Tony to steady herself. Ty was scrolling through his phone ignoring the rest of them. 

Kashmir looped her purse strap over her shoulder and turned to Tony. “Come on -- let’s get the car and head out.”

“Yeah, catch you all later,” Ty announced. “Nice to see you, Tony. Sorry about your business troubles.” He left.

Steve noticed that the other woman was tipsy as well. He looked over at Tony, who was texting. He felt tension in his shoulders. He had to say something about the women -- he didn’t even know their names -- about getting them to a safe space.

Impatient, Kashmir tapped Tony’s arm. “Are we going or what?”

“Where are we going?” the blonde said. She bent over to put her shoe back on. 

“Not us,” Kashmir said brittlely. 

Tony looked up from his phone, glanced at Steve and said, “Um, I’ll meet up in the main lobby, Kashmir -- I’ll be escorting these lovely ladies back to their rooms. A half-hour at worst.”

Kashmir bent over and kissed Tony’s cheek. “I’ve got a call to make anyway. Don’t be late -- I’ve got plans for you.”

In the elevator with Tony and the women, Steve was irritated and annoyed at how this bad mission was dragging on. Then it got worse when the tipsy one bumped into Tony, and batted her eyelashes at him. “You know, Tony, you are just super amazing. You should ditch the girlfriend and come out with us.” It took all of Steve’s strength to not roll his eyes.

The other woman clung to Tony like a remora. “That’s right. We can show you a much better time. You are the perfect guy, Tony. All that money and supermodel looks.” She put a hand on his thigh and smiled suggestively at him.

Steve interrupted the scene. “Which floor, ma’am?”

“Floor? Oh, right, we’re in --” The tipsy women scrambled through her purse for her room key. “We’re in this tower -- floor 50.”

He managed to help detach the women off Tony while both Tony and he got the women safely back to their room. Not without a lot of pleading to see Tony again and saying that they were ready to go anywhere with him.

The walk back to the elevator was very quiet. They got stuck waiting at the elevator bank for the next down elevator. “So you’re going out with Vennema. Again,” Steve said, trying hard to keep anger out of his voice.

“Yeah, what about it?” Tony replied. He shot a glare at Steve.

“Tony, you know we’ve got this mission, and there’s a banquet tonight --”

“I have not forgotten about the mission. Not one bit. I’m just taking the night off.” 

Steve sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. Not the news he needed to hear. “You can’t take -- hanging out with Vennema means you’re not working the mission.”

“Spare me the lecture, Steve. I’m done with it and the whole damn mission.” The elevator doors swooshed open and Tony stepped inside. “Kashmir is clean. I’ll see you in the morning. Okay? Okay.”

“Are you even taking this seriously? You can’t leave the hotel without a security detail -- you could be in danger.”

Tony huffed. “Whatever. Give me a damn break once in awhile. I know what I’m doing.” Then he hit the button and closed the doors in Steve’s shocked face.

~~~~~

At the stop light, Kashmir turned to Tony. “Ready for something else or are you going to turn in early, grandpa?”

Tony snorted. “What’s on the agenda?”

“A little light bar-hopping, followed by some clubbing. I don’t have to be anywhere in the morning. Oops.” She giggled, pointing at Tony’s watch. “Let’s say I don’t have to be anywhere later today.”

She took a turn at the light, then a few more, eventually pulling up in front of a nightclub with a crowd standing out front five people deep. She snapped her fingers at the valet. “No one ever moves fast enough,” she complained to Tony. She threw her keys at the valet, leaving Tony to retrieve the ticket.

Kashmir proved the universal truth that a gorgeous young woman in a skimpy sparkly red dress could get into any club she wanted to. Tony trotted behind her as the bouncers waved them in. As they entered the club, Tony could see what type of place they were in, and hesitated as he took in the crowded dance floor, flashing lights, loud music and the go-go dancers on a lit stage. If he didn’t know better, it looked like a strip club. He probably shouldn’t be here.

She poked him. “Oh, come on, are you my dad or something? It’s not a strip club if that’s what you’re thinking — it’s not one of those sleazy places. This is just a place where some of the dancers wear a lot less clothing than other dancers. You’ve been to clubs like this.”

The problem was that Tony had been to clubs like these before. Lots of times. Before the cave and arc-reactor. Before Steve. Steve would blow a gasket if he knew that Tony was here -- they had already argued about him going out. He’d get another lecture at least. Maybe even two. And he didn’t relish the idea of arguing the finer points what made a place not a strip club with Steve.

The throbbing beat flooded over him as a laughing Kashmir tugged on his hand and gathered up beautiful, less-than-formally clad clubgoers around them as she headed to their VIP table. Kashmir threw her arm over his shoulders and winked at the giggling blonde women on the other side of Tony. In minutes their table was covered in all types of liquor and a couple baskets of chips. “Look there,” Kashmir said, squeezing his knee. She pointed at the dancers on stage.

A couple of drinks later, the wind of the fast ride through the city still in his blood, and lots of fun conversation with the great people around the table, Tony wondered why he’d ever given this up. He could still be Iron Man and co-leader of the Avengers and go to clubs like this. 

Steve would say something about training, focus, being a true hero and not a celebrity hero. Here though, Tony was young, not washed up, not left behind. He had years ahead of him and tons of inventions to make and things to do and places to be. For crying out loud, he made enough money to fund a top-notch superhero team and still had enough left over to donate millions to charity. Fuck Steve and his miserable monk existence.

He ordered another round of bottle service. No way it was going to be an early night for Anthony Edward Stark.

Then his phone buzzed. He ignored it. It wasn’t the Avengers-need-to-save-the-world-again alarm. Kashmir and her new best friends lured him out to the dance floor. Sandwiched between all the gorgeous people he kept meeting, he felt the phone in his pocket buzzing again. One flick and the phone went silent. He wasn’t going to be bothered on his night out, not for anything.

Back at the table, Kashmir nudged him sharply. “Huh, get a load of that guy.” She pointed at the next dancer about to take the stage. “He looks a lot like your black-suited friends. Guess you have a type.”

“I only hire competent professionals screened and evaluated by my security team. Josh and What’s-His-Name are the best.” For the life of him, Tony couldn’t remember the undercover name Thor was using. Natasha hated it though. Ragnar? Maybe. It was a Viking name at any rate.

The ‘dancer’ took the stage. He spun on a pole a couple of times when Tony realized the dancer did look an awful lot like Steve. An inch or two shorter and not as built or as flexible. But this guy was a definite crowd favorite. Tony was mesmerized by his routine. The guy worked the pole like he born to do nothing else but go-go dance in a Madripoor hotspot. He slowly stripped off his club wear revealing his own set of amazing abs and biceps. But it was his thousand-watt smile that made the act work — it lit up his whole face.

Steve had a beautiful smile. But Tony didn’t see it all that often. The dancer worked the crowd, sharing his smile with everyone, though it felt like he meant it just for them. He caught Tony’s eye and Tony felt the warmth of the smile wash over him. Like he was the only one in the club. He downed his drink. He could appreciate the low-rent Adonis on the stage shaking it for the rent money and the adoring crowd. But it wasn’t the smile he wanted. Double fuck Steve.

“You know, I don’t think he’d mind a one-on-one session in a private room,” Kashmir whispered in his ear, trailing her fingers up his arm.

“Nah, I’m having too much fun here,” Tony replied. An image of Steve wearing nothing but a bikini and a smile flashed through his mind, and he had to pinch himself hard to drive it out of his memory.

“Sure you are, buddy,” she shot back. “Stop crying in your drink over your company and then you might have fun.” She spread her arms along the back of the booth. “It’s Madripoor, Tony, you can have whatever you want.”

“As long as you pay for it.”

“Especially if you pay for it and don’t care about the cost.” She nudged him with her foot. “We escaped that boring conference to have fun. Let’s have fun.”

“I can toast to that.”

~~~~~

Steve gave up trying to reach Tony over an hour ago. Thor had suggested that they wait for Tony in shifts and sent Steve up to the suite to take a nap. Made sense that Tony’s security detail would be concerned for Tony, given the night’s events.

But Steve couldn’t sleep. 

He had no idea where Tony had gone or if he was safe. Whatever he was doing involved Kashmir Vennema, a completely unknown entity with an unknown agenda. Steve didn’t find that at all comforting. That woman could have been anybody from just a conference attendee to a member of a science-terrorist think tank to being the ringleader of the group who stole Tony’s tech. Actually his head hurt from the fact that there were even science-terrorist think tanks in the world. And all of them had sent representatives to the Expo.

Finally he gave up on trying to sleep and decided to relieve Thor. He put back on the suit, the sunglasses and the earpiece, because they had to keep up appearances. He didn’t spend much thought on clothes beyond presentable. But for some reason tonight he hated how the suit made him look — like a block on feet. It was not an attractive look at all. The sunglasses made everything that much worse; he took them off.

Thor was still sitting in the lobby when Steve arrived. Looking terribly bored, he was leafing through another magazine from the pile next to him. 

Steve handed him a soda and a bag of trail mix. “Any sign of Tony?” He sat down and took out the earpiece like Thor had done. 

“Nay. I have not seen Friend Stark since the yacht,” Thor said as he gratefully took the soda. He looked doubtfully at the trail mix.

Steve checked his watch. “It’s nearly 5 am.”

“Indeed. You can see the dawn light through yonder doors.” Thor closed his magazine and picked up the Lonely Planet’s Guide to Madripoor that Steve bought earlier. “This is a fascinating city, I do not know why I had not come before.”

“Madripoor has, um, a reputation.”

“Do not most cities?”

“People think that you can buy and sell anything in Madripoor. Anything. Maybe that’s true. At minimum, the government turns a blind eye to black-market imports and exports, wanted criminals living in the city, a whole host of crimes.”

“It makes great sense to have this Expo here with such laws and policy.”

“You’re right.” Steve looked up when he heard someone coming through the doors. False alarm. “I wonder when Tony’s going to be back.”

“He better be back. He’s got five hours before his first meeting at 10 am,” Clint said, hopping over the back of the couch to join them. He grabbed the bag of trail mix from the coffee table. “I have no idea how Pepper Potts did this for years without killing Tony.” Clint threw his head back and groaned.

Steve said, “You’ve only been on the job for two days.”

“Tony has the magic ability to be invited to every meeting and event under the sun. And miss every single one because he meets a woman and suddenly needs to go to a club.”

Steve closed his eyes. Terrible things could happen to the unwary in the Madripoor clubs. He should have insisted on following. “Do we know anything more about Kashmir since the afternoon?”

“She seems to have an unspecific job with Damocles Research. She might be running it, or second in command. Otherwise she’s a ghost — no records of her anywhere. It would be helpful to know what her real name is.” Clint rummaged around the trail mix to pick out the cashews. “Madripoor attracts the worst people.”

“Indeed? This city appears to provide much of interest,” Thor said. “I wish to see more of this place.” Clint shot Thor a strange look.

Ignoring them, Steve said, “And Tony is out there with her and without the suit.”

“I’m sure your boyfriend will be fine. Tony is resourceful when the shit hits the fan,” Clint said.

Steve narrowed his eyes. “All of us should be concerned about Tony.”

“Someone seems to be more concerned than others. You should have seen your face at that cocktail party. Hey, talking about Tony, look what the cat dragged in.”

At that moment, Tony sauntered in through the main doors with Kashmir. A little unsteady on his feet, he tottered up to them. “Hey, guys.”

Steve jumped to his feet and fixed a steely eye on Tony. “Mr. Stark, are you okay?” He cast a questioning look at Kashmir.

“I’m perfectly fine. I just went out with my friend. I’m back now.”

“I — we tried to reach you all evening,” Steve continued. “There was an attempt on Gene Khan’s life.”

“I hope he’s okay?” Kashmir asked. 

Steve shook his head. “We don’t have any news about him. But Mr. Stark —”

“Sure. Whatever. Lead on.”

“See you later, Tony.” Kashmir leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll leave you to your overpaid babysitters.”

In the elevator on their way to the suite, Tony asked, “What happened to Khan?”

“He was attacked after the banquet tonight,” Thor explained. “We are seeking more information.”

“Banquet?”

“Yeah, you were supposed to be there. Instead we all got to hear Hammer yammer on his latest robot technology,” complained Clint.

Steve clenched and unclenched his fist. He was glad to see Tony back safe and sound. But he was annoyed that Tony was blithely ignoring that they were in the most dangerous city in the world where people could be found to assassinate targets for practically nothing. “Where were you?”

“You know, a car ride through the city and then to a nightclub. No big deal.”

The elevator stopped at their floor. “Tony — Mr. Stark — you shouldn’t leave the hotel without us,” Steve started as they walked down the short hallway to the suite.

“What? So you can lecture me about my behavior some more?” Tony rolled his eyes and shrugged.

Steve held his tongue until they were safely inside the suite. “Tony, you know that this city is dangerous and running off to god knows where can get you killed.”

“Right. Sure.” Tony looked Steve right in the eye. “You’re just angry because you hate seeing other people having fun.”

Well, Tony was right that he was angry. “It’s not about fun — it’s about you going out with an unknown person without a security detail. You don’t have the armor, and it wouldn’t take much to drag you into a van and disappear. And we already talked about not working the mission.”

“Uh-huh,” Tony replied. “I’m fine. We’ve faced a hell of a lot worse -- my life is not in danger. We’re tracking down whoever is selling my stolen tech. That means we have to talk to people. That’s what I’m doing. And whatever happen to Khan is probably related to Ten Rings business, whatever that is.”

“He’s got a point, Steve,” Clint said. 

“Listen to bird-brain there,” Tony added. “I’m going to bed. How long until the next meeting?”

“You have a meeting with your lawyer and reps from Steel Corporation at 10,” Clint reported.

“I’m sure that Natasha can handle them without me. Wake me up later.” Tony yawned. 

“Great, just great,” Clint said through gritted teeth.


	3. Chapter 3

The team allowed Tony about three hours of sleep before Natasha called a meeting to assess the mission. Tony rolled out of bed straight into a debate about the quality of the hotel breakfast. Feeling fragile, he surveyed the mountain of pastries, muffins, yogurt, fruit, and some sort of egg dish laid out on the suite’s dining table. And coffee, lots of coffee.

“Scott found a place that delivers breakfast,” Steve said. Tony appreciated that Steve had apparently decided to forget their earlier fight. Although he couldn’t stay angry at Steve for long, at any rate. Steve was right about needing to stay on mission.

“What’s wrong with room service?” Tony asked yawning.

“Room service will track our orders. Natasha thinks that will tip people off.”

“You’re supposed to be my people. Of course we’ll have meetings —”

Steve pointed out, “It’s the amount and type of food. Thor, me, Bruce.”

“Oh, right.” Tony glanced back to see a pile of muffins in front of Thor.

Scott popped up from his ant-size sweep of the room. “I didn’t find any listening devices. How long is this going to be? I have a meeting with some reps from Hammer Industries at 10.”

“About what?” Clint asked from his seat near the window. “Hopefully wanting to sell you stolen Stark tech.”

“A job offer, I think. They said something about needing someone like me when we were at the bar last night.”

“Maybe you should ask about the benefits package. I hear Stark Industries might be having massive layoffs,” Clint pointed out.

Tony winced involuntarily. Granted, the whole story was a SHIELD setup, but he didn’t relish explaining to shareholders that the bad financial news about the company was all a diversion. But they would understand corporate espionage, so he’d be safe using that tack in his argument. 

“Know what, I should ask — the whole freelance superhero gig doesn’t come with medical.”

Clint eye-rolled at Scott. “Let’s talk about Gene Khan. What’s the update?”

Natasha said, “He’s fine, from what I can tell — I heard that he’ll be back at the Expo this afternoon. His security team is refusing to say where he is in the meantime. Or give out details of the attack.”

“Wait — what happened?” Tony asked. “Steve and Thor didn’t tell me anything last night.”

“I only found out an outline of what happened this morning. Khan was leaving a late-night dinner and was being escorted through a back-door passage to avoid crowds. Several people, or a smaller group, or maybe just one person, attacked him and his bodyguards. There’s a rumor that two of the four guards were killed and Khan was injured,” Natasha reported.

“Khan — hmmm, he’s a top guy at Ten Rings Corporation,” Tony said. He poured himself more coffee. “I can’t get a good read what the company actually does besides the suspected criminal and terrorist stuff we know they do. They sell low-end commercial electronics and do that well. But here they’re shopping around for specialized weapons tech — drones, missiles, satellites.”

Steve sat listening intently to Natasha’s news. He said, “If that’s what they are buying, is it the same as the Stark tech that we’re tracking down — the SHIELD drone tracking and communications tech and the satellite design plans?”

Tony looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath to calm down. It was too early in the morning for this and to be reminded of the urgency of their mission. As it was, SHIELD was looking at a major setback if they couldn’t take the stolen tech off the market. “Yeah, that’s right. What a terrific coincidence. A criminal organization trying to look legit buying the tech I designed for SHIELD.”

“I’m wondering if Khan discovered something about that tech we don’t and the seller wanted to silence him. Or possibly someone wanted to steal it from him if he had already bought it,” Steve added.

People often forgot that Steve had a brilliant mind in addition to the athletic body and supermodel looks. Tony liked that about Steve. And he might possibly have a point about the dangers in Tony leaving his ‘bodyguards’ behind and going off on his own.

“Well, we have to work on finding that out, team. I’ll check in with everyone later,” Natasha said.

“Hey, Natasha, how do you feel about going to that meeting with Steel by yourself?” Clint asked, whipping out his tablet. “Mr. Stark is not available.”

“Argh. Fine. Let’s see if Ivan Drenko has anything to offer.”

Tony tugged on Steve’s sleeve. “Look, um, I won’t go out clubbing alone again.”

“I hope you understand that I’m not here to prevent you from having fun,” Steve said. “We have a mission --” 

“Yeah, the mission and all that jazz. And you’re just doing your job.”

“Let’s get this over with. I’m sure you’ll sleep better when we’ve recovered your tech,” Steve agreed. 

Tony added, “All I know is that Kashmir is okay. She’s fun to be around--”

“I hope you’re right about her, Tony.”

“So, Clint, what’s on the agenda for today?” Tony asked. “Like Natasha said, let’s go and get some intel.”

~~~~~

Tony spent a highly entertaining afternoon by the pool. Kashmir told him all the latest gossip from the Expo while Vincent Sandhurst tried to pitch his new satellite spying services to a half-interested group of attendees. Thor, on guard duty, sat off to the side in the shade trying hard to stay awake. Tony snagged another drink as Kashmir asked, “So what is it like to be poor?”

“I’m not poor. Not by any stretch of the imagination.” 

“It’s all everyone is talking about — you ditched us to form the Avengers and fight crime and aliens and now you’re back. Which means of course you’ve lost a lot of money doing the whole do-gooder thing.”

“You’ve seen the news stories.” Tony sipped his drink watching Sandhurst fumble through his PowerPoint presentation. Bad idea to do that during a pool party. Well, not a pool party. More like a pool dirge at the rate they were going.

“Sure, like everyone else here. But I was hoping for a little bit of insider news.” She smiled at him. “Come on. I find out everything anyway given enough time. Like what happened to Gene Khan.”

Tony had learned enough about spying to keep her talking. “What happened to Khan?”

She chuckled. “The rumor is that he ripped off the wrong people in an arms deal and it caught up to him. Or he fooled around with the wrong person’s girlfriend.”

“That sounds plausible.” Tony didn’t believe her for a minute since he knew that Khan was too important in the Ten Rings Corporation to be messed with.

“Ha. I know when I’m being brushed off. So what are your plans after this?” She adjusted her bikini and sunglasses. “Assuming this ever ends.”

“My assistant is being militant about my schedule. I have meetings. Since I’m so poor, I need to make money.”

“That’s crappy.” She pulled out a small purse. “Look, we’ve been great friends and all, so don’t take this wrong way. When you’re free, stop by my room and we can figure out something to do.” 

She handed a business card over to Tony as the crowd politely clapped for the end of Sandhurst’s presentation. “Catch you later.”

~~~~~

Tony turned the business card over in his hand. Kashmir Vennema, Damocles Research, printed on the front in script, room 50001 written on the back. He was at the right spot alright. He glanced over at Steve staring at the elevator door. 

“Hey,” he said, nudging him with his elbow. “You think this is a bad idea, don’t you?”

Steve huffed. “We went over this earlier. Kashmir says that she’s a representative of Damocles Research, but we never found anything on that think tank — even after searching, um, all our resources. You can’t figure out what she is selling or buying. I don’t know why she wanted to meet you in her hotel room.”

“A secret meeting to buy my tech, that’s what I’m counting on. Or she wants to pre-game before going out to the club.”

“I want a lead on something — the conference wraps up soon and we’re still not close to finding what we came to find.”

“You’re going to be massively disappointed if this is a party before we all go out to a club.”

The elevator stopped on the fiftieth floor, which only had two presidential suites. Better rooms than his, Tony thought ruefully. Just another one of those things about this mission that was setting his teeth on edge. Because if it wasn’t the mission and the whole let-the-world-think-Tony-Stark-is-close-to-bankruptcy thing, he’d be in the best room in this whole hotel right now — the penthouse suite.

Surprisingly, Kashmir answered the door. “Hi, Tony! I was expecting you.” 

She looked past him at Steve. “Oh,” she added, with genuine disappointment in her voice. “You didn’t bring both of your paid playmates with you.”

“I sent the other guy on an errand,” Tony explained. At that moment, Thor was likely terrorizing the room service kitchen people with insane orders. Unless he and Clint were involved in some incomprehensible bet over the color of the room towels. Either scenario was entirely possible. Thank god SHIELD was paying for it all, including damages.

Kashmir, dressed in sweats, her hair held in place by ornamental hair picks, tugged at Tony’s arm. “Come in and see the view from the window.”

“I guess you’re not planning to go out tonight.”

“No, I have actual work to do. I’ve got a presentation and demo tomorrow — it’s a very big deal for my company.”

He could see the brilliantly lit eastern part of the city through the wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. But he also noticed the messy piles of papers full of calculations and sketches and laptops scattered thickly around on the floor of the sunken living room. The whole thing felt more like MIT than a luxury hotel. 

“I see you’ve been busy getting ready.”

“I’m not paid to only hang out by the pool,” Kashmir said. “Hungry? I could order room service.”

“Thank you — I’ve had dinner,” Tony replied. “So you wanted to see me?”

She laughed. “I didn’t expect you to go straight to business talk.” She glanced over at Steve standing stoically at the front door of the suite. “You can sit. Anywhere.” She pointed over to the couches.

“Busy man, you know,” Tony offered as an excuse. 

“I’m a busy woman.” She stretched and the sweatshirt fell off her shoulder. “So, yeah, I do have a business proposition after all. I’m not all about fun and games all the time.”

Tony’s heat leapt. This was it. Kashmir would tip them off to a tech deal with stolen Stark Industries tech and they could all go home. He watched her walk across the room. She knew she was giving a performance in her walk, the sweatshirt that refused to sit on her shoulders and the short shorts that rode up as she moved. Tony appreciated the elegant lines of her body, the confidence of her carriage and that she clearly thought he would be seduced by it. Once upon a time he would have fallen hook, line, and sinker. But not tonight.

Kashmir sat down at a table off to the side and shuffled a pile of cards. “Let’s play a game of poker.”

Tony sat down across from her. Nice touch with the full case of casino chips. A quick glance and he could tell she had stocked a tray worth at least fifty thousand. Whatever the hell she did, it paid well.

“What are the stakes?” he asked.

“What are you offering?”

“Not much if this is between friends.”

Kashmir laughed, the beautiful ringing tones echoing in the hotel room. “You’re a hell of a lot of fun, Tony. I really hope that you’ve come back to your roots as an arms manufacturer because we could have a lot of fun together at these horrible events.”

“So that’s what this — a game between friends?”

“Sure, if you like it that way.” She dealt the cards. “It’s just poker, right?”

“If that’s what we’re playing.”

“Five-card stud, for the record.”

Tony was confused. He looked back at Steve, now planted on one of the living room couches, leafing through a magazine. “What are the stakes?”

“Winner names the prize. Nothing big, like I get Stark Industries if you lose. And maybe all we do is exchange information. I figure a little mystery will keep things interesting. Unless you’re afraid of losing to little ol’ me.” She grinned at him.

Tony couldn’t help but grin back. “Okay, deal.”

Kashmir handed him a stack of chips, pushed back her sleeves and dealt a hand. Tony glanced at his cards and immediately knew he had a challenge on his hands. It wasn’t like he was a card whiz but he could usually hold his own at poker. He bluffed his way through the first hand and the next. But the long odds were against him and Kashmir was winning hand by hand until Tony had only a handful of chips.

She laid down her cards. “Royal flush.”

Tony sighed. “Two pairs.”

“So you lost my little game.” She tapped her cards on the table. “I get to claim my prize.”

“Fine. What do you want?” Tony stacked his chips, ready to push the entire pile over.

She smiled again. “I want your bodyguard.”

Tony laughed. “Right. Seriously, what do you want that doesn’t involve handing people over?”

“Not taking me seriously, tsk tsk. I warned you about that. What’s the bodyguard’s name — Jake? Josh?”

He glanced over at Steve seated on a couch with his magazine. Apparently working with SHIELD spies had rubbed off on him. Steve looked just like a bored bodyguard waiting on his boss. But Tony could see that Steve had been carefully listening to the whole conversation from the way he cocked his head and shifted his body to hide that he had moved closer to the table. “Josh. Maybe.”

“Josh works for me now.”

“I think Josh would have something to say about that.”

Kashmir snorted. “You and I could buy and sell men like Josh all day long. It’s not like this is some blow to your pocket, Tony.”

“Josh is a person.”

“You know that doesn’t matter here. No laws about it.” She stood up and walked over to the sideboard to get a beer.

“Matters to me. I don’t deal with exploiting people like that.”

“Oh, Tony, I thought you had really left that whole goody-two-shoes attitude behind you. You lost to me tonight — you could win against me tomorrow. I have this amazing coder working for me — you might need that. And if you cross me on this, you’ll really regret it.” She waved her bottle at him as she leaned against the sideboard.

Tony had a feeling for the sort of person Kashmir truly was, and he didn’t like it. And he wasn’t going to hand over Steve to her. Steve might get annoying with his high-horse lectures and demanding sense of right and wrong. But Steve was his Steve. 

“It’s been fun, Kashmir. But we should be going.”

She sighed. “Fine. Be that way. Now listen to me. Okay — this is the real deal, Tony. You’re here because your company’s stock isn’t doing all that well, and Stark Industries is no longer considered a leader in a number of technology fields. You’ve been resting on your laurels, right? Doing the world’s policeman gig? So you go back to your roots. It’s an absolute shame that you’ve been reduced to peddling crappy tech here at the Expo, where you should be celebrated and honored for all the amazing work you did five years ago. But, honey, hell, now Hammer Industries is considered a tech leader and leaving Stark Industries in the dust. You are in a hole and you’re not digging yourself out all that well.” 

She stopped and drank more from her beer. Running a finger around the rim of the bottle, she smiled poisonously at Tony. “Sweetheart, you’re not in a position to negotiate, not with me, anyway. You have all the other people here snowed and willing to kiss your feet. But you and I know the real score.”

“Still not handing over Josh.”

“Well, isn’t that sweet. I’m going to make your life much more difficult, Tony. I’ll tell a few people that you have no intention of selling any of the Iron Man tech — your lawyer’s been telling people that you’re planning to, right? — and no one is going to buy anything you’re trying to sell here. Or maybe I tell people that you’re on some sort of undercover mission for SHIELD and the Avengers are on their way to clean house. Doesn’t matter if any of that is true or not — people believe me, and that’s all that matters in order to ruin you here. I can make it so that you have to slink back to New York and pray that you still have a company standing at the end of it all. So, yeah, handing Josh over to me is the least of the problematic things you’ll ever have to do in your life. If you want to save yourself and your company.”

Tony inhaled sharply. Now, the mission was on the line. He didn’t trust Kashmir. He knew Steve could handle himself. SHIELD would be terribly compromised if the mission failed. He looked over at Steve, who was listening impassively to this whole exchange. He couldn’t get a good read on Steve.

But it was Steve. If Steve ended up dead, or worse, experimented on, he could never live with himself. 

“I’m waiting, Tony. Want to see a taste of the hell I’ll unleash on you if you turn me down?”

Tony had checked the Stark Industries stock prices since SHIELD unveiled its misinformation campaign. And his company and his reputation as a businessman were taking a major hit. Too much was riding on this mission. 

Steve would never have handed him over. Steve would stoically live through the aftermath. But he would not betray a friend. Ever. 

“You drive a hard bargain —”

“There’s no bargain here, honey. I take what I want. I’d suggest we go out for a drink or two but under the circumstances, I’m sure you’d pass.”

Tony got up to leave. He couldn’t face Steve. Couldn’t even look him in the face as he turned away, so sure he was that Steve was vastly disappointed in him. At the elevator, Tony nearly turned around, convinced that Steve had shrugged off Kashmir’s deal and followed him out the door. But, no Steve. 

He returned to the suite, found no one, and sat staring out the window, the bourbon turning bitter on his tongue. How was he any different from people like Scott, who was always dancing close to the line between hero and supervillain? What kind of hero was he when for his own convenience he betrayed a team member and friend? 

When he finally fell asleep, all he could think about was Steve. 

~~~~~

Sam was surprised to find that he was enjoying the Expo tremendously. He would have enjoyed it even more if he didn’t have the mission hanging over his head. Lots to do and see. He spent the day at the booths and going to vendor showcases. And he had lots of invites for dinner and more at the end of the day.

He had breakfast with a sales guy from AIM, of all places. They ended up talking more fantasy football than stolen tech. The AIM guy complained for an entire hour because AIM corporate IT cut him off from watching video and accessing his football sites at work. He pestered Sam about Stark Industries and whether they allowed web -surfing at work. Sam latched onto Scott, who was passing through the hotel restaurant, to escape.

Scott had snagged an Expo map a day ago and carefully marked off each booth and vendor they visited. “This is utter crap,” he complained. “For all the illegal and black market weapons tech here, I have not seen or heard one iota of Stark Industries tech. Stolen or otherwise.”

The AIM booth covered half a row with bright yellow signs, stylized hexagons, pictures of their products and services, and tables full of flyers, catalogs, samples, bowls of candy and a box of raffle tickets for a disintegrator gun. “The bee puns are a nice touch,” Sam observed. 

“Anything out of your AIM guy?”

“Apparently AIM banned Facebook at their facilities,” Sam replied. He picked up a flyer declaring that AIM was hiring. “And Snapchat, Instagram, and streaming video.”

“Huh. That sucks. Glad I don’t work there.”

Sam scanned the map again and checked the schedule. “There’s a Damocles Research presentation in a few minutes. I have no idea what they’re selling.”

“We have to hoof it. Ballroom E is on the other side of the hotel.”

A hotel staff member stopped them before they could enter the room. “Tickets and badges please.”

Well, that was new, Sam thought. Now his interest in seeing the presentation was most definitely piqued.

“Tickets?” Sam looked at Scott, who was rummaging through his pockets.

“Yeah. Remember, you gave them to me yesterday.” Scott produced two sorry-looking chits and handed them over to the staff member. “And here’s my badge.” Sam saw Greg Simons, Hammer Industries on the badge when Scott flashed at the guard. “My friend here” — Scott motioned at Sam — “has, like, no memory. He’s probably left his badge in the hotel room, that is if he didn’t leave it in that bar --”

“I can’t let you in without a badge.”

“Come on, our boss is going to have our asses if we can’t report back on this,” Scott whined. He sharply nudged Sam. “It’s all your fault, Jay. Dude, you gotta be more organized.”

The staff member sighed, hesitated, then waved them through when a crowd started gathering at the door.

Sam snatched the badge from Scott when they sat down. “Is this a forgery?” 

“Naw,” Scott scoffed. “Greg gave it to me a couple of nights ago. He didn’t want the police to know who he was.”

“And you didn’t return it?”

Scott shrugged. “I returned his wallet and phone to him. He doesn’t need the badge anymore since he’s been sent home. It’s been handy. You can’t get into some of these things if people think you’re from Stark Industries. Even with the tickets.”

“Oh.” Sam examined the gathering audience. He picked out representatives from all the major scientific think tank-slash-terrorist organizations as well as a healthy number of smaller wanna-be groups. And Stark Industries wasn’t welcome, at all. “How did you know that Stark Industries reps aren’t wanted?” he whispered to Scott.

“Um, Damocles Research had a demo when we got here and I was bounced real hard from the room after I showed my badge. Weird. Our money is just as good as anyone else’s.”

“Uh-huh.” Sam considered that Scott was overdoing it a bit. “Hey, it’s beginning.” He nudged Scott, who was checking his phone.

Scott glanced up at the stage at the front of the room with a large white screen and podium. He groaned. “Do you know how many PowerPoint presentations I’ve seen over the past two days? My brain is already melting.”

A tall, dark-haired woman in a brown suit walked up to the podium. “Hello, I’m Kashmir Vennema and we’re Damocles Research. And here’s what we can do for you.” She stepped back and a video played on the screen.

Sam saw nothing interesting in the video, which seemed to be selling Damocles Research rather than any particular product with glowing pictures of research and lab facilities and people talking with a message about supporting peacekeeping efforts across the world. Except Scott was involved in an intense conversation with the Ten Rings guy next to him and they both were excited over something. Sam noted a lot of interest around the room and an uptick in audience noise. “Clue me in.”

Scott whispered back. “There’s a rumor we’re supposed to see a demo of their new tracking and communications software — supposed to be superior to anything on the market.”

“Legal?”

Scott rolled his eyes. “It’s as good, if not better, than anything SHIELD has.”

At the end of the video, Vennema came back to the podium. “But you didn’t come here to see our video. You came to see a demo of our latest products. Come on up guys.” She waved to a team of tech guys on the side of the screen. “I’ll let our head of R&D take over. All yours, Dave.”

Sam took out his notebook to jot down what he observed while the R&D guys set up a laptop and five drones the size of a large dog. Dave described all the features of their brand-new tracking systems — from the drones to the software. Scott bit his lip and muttered something too low for Sam to hear. The drones flew up. That’s when everything went haywire. The drones flew over the audience and fell, one by one, into the screaming and running crowd. Scott and Sam instinctively went to help people out of the path of the wayward drones. Sam batted the last done with a chair. Vennema shouted for people to stay. She could explain what went wrong. But no one heard her in the stampede out the door.

Safely back in their hotel room, Scott put a small disk on the floor and pushed a button on his wrist watch. One of the Damocles drones popped back to normal size.

Sam high-fived Scott. “Good going.” He squatted down to examine the broken drone closely.

“Want to bet that we’ve found stolen Stark Tech?” Scott suggested.

“Tony would never have designed anything that poorly.”

“What if the people who stole his tech stole the prototypes? Tony never said he finished the coding and final wiring for the SHIELD project.”

They exchanged grins and high-fives. “Get ready to break it down,” Sam said as he retrieved his laptop.


	4. Chapter 4

Clint sat down at the hotel lobby bar, ordered five straight whiskey shots all at once, and lined them up in front of him. “One good thing about this cesspool is that the bartenders don’t ask questions and don’t cut you off,” he said to Tony next to him. “So how long have you been staring at that?”

Tony poked at his glass filled with some neon-green liquid. No clinking, so no more ice, so longer than however long it took for ice to melt in this bar. If he cared, he could do the calculations in seconds. “Long enough.”

“Huh.” Clint downed one shot. He set the glass down on the bar. “Steve drives Fury up the wall. All the time. He gets this tick in his face whenever Steve opens his mouth.”

“And this matters to me how?”

“I dunno, but I think you’re being too hard on yourself. Steve’s Steve and you are you.”

“Right.”

Clint nudged Tony. “Come on. You and me — look, I know what it’s like to have to work at redemption. Hell, I worked with the Circus of Crime for years until I seized my one chance to get out when Fury said SHIELD could use a guy like me.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Tell me you’re not, like, interfacing with a computer hundreds of miles away while I’m trying to talk to you.”

“No. I’m trying to understand what you’re getting at. Because it’s not making sense.”

Clint sighed. He pushed his shots aside and put his elbows on the bar. “Don’t compare yourself to Steve.”

“Sure. I am actively not doing that right now.” Fury would blow a gasket and a hell of a lot more when he found out that Tony lost Steve in a poker game.

Clint gave him a side-eye. “Look — I’m not saying that you are or aren’t.” He pursed his lips. “So we grew up hearing all about Captain America and how he pretty much won World War II single-handedly.”

“Uh-huh.” Tony heard distinctly different stories from everyone else, given that his father actually knew Captain America. But there were all the same about how great Steve was. 

“So they find the guy in the ice and it’s like George Washington rose from the grave and walked into the White House. I mean — here’s one of the greatest heroes of all time, and he’s eating a panini in the cafeteria next to you. It’s hard to process. ” Clint traced a finger on the bar. “He’s here and bigger than life.

“The problem with Steve is — well — he’s the most real thing you’re ever gonna meet. He’s the measuring stick, the thing that separates the kids from the adults, the touchstone — he rips away any delusions you might have about yourself because he is so damn real, and you know you’re just never gonna measure up. So you either get angry and want to tear him down so you can beat him into the ground and crow in triumph over him. Or you struggle and struggle with trying to be like him and just never get to the point that you measure up. It can be fucking hell to be around him.

“And the worst of it is that he doesn’t see one damn bit of this. He just doesn’t — he looks at you and says I believe in you, you can do this, you have all the talent and ability you’ll ever need. So you’ll turn yourself inside and out to prove yourself to him, that you have value, and that you sure the damn hell won’t let him down. And then you do because you’re human and he’s probably not.” Clint paused. “It must be hell to love someone like that.”

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Tony said glumly.

“Hah.” Clint snorted. He ordered another round of shots. “Getting drunk with the boss goes against every bit of advice ever given in career blogs, you know that, right?” He took another shot. “But, seriously, we all love Steve. He’s the greatest. He doesn’t complain when he has to do the laundry.”

“Clint — honestly, I’m still not getting where you are going.”

“Think about it, Tony. Steve has to always be good. You and me — we’ve got room to grow. We slip up here and there, and no one is going to say a thing — we’re working on being good people. Steve, though — he’s starting in a different place. He’s always been good, and people have expectations about him. What’s he going to do and say. And sometimes it’s not clear to civilians or half of SHIELD that Steve and Cap are different people.”

“Hmmm. Steve —”

“Ain’t ever going to say a thing about it.” Clint flexed his fingers and sighed. “Okay. Let’s start again. So I’m on this special ops team with this legendary SHIELD guy — let’s call him Bob — he’s known for getting the job done one way or the other. A real upcoming leader in SHIELD. I find out that Bob is really into fantasy football, obsessive, the whole nine yards. I join his league — I don’t put all that much effort into it, but it’s something to talk about in between missions, right? I end up on this mission with another team and that’s how I find out that Bob is a big cheater at fantasy football.

“Fury doesn’t care about that. Heck, if he needed a Cheating at Fantasy Football division head, he’d promote Bob. That’s how Fury gets his job done.

“Not Steve. Steve looks at that and wonders if cheating means that Bob won’t be there if the team needs him. Everything we do depends on us trusting each other. That’s why this mission fucking sucks — we’re not working together, not a team. Steve pulls us together, and we believe in him because he walks the walk and talks the talk. He would never, ever cheat at games because what does that say about him? Could we trust him fighting Thanos if we knew that Steve was willing to cut corners at cards? That’s how Steve thinks.”

Tony had nothing to say. Only his shoulders slumped lower.

“What does that say about you? Nothing, Tony. Nothing at all. But we see that Steve follows you. You guys fight like cats and dogs. But Steve believes in you, and he’ll put everything on the line when you have a plan to save the day. He’ll move heaven and earth and the center of the universe if you need him to. He thinks you’re a good person -- no, a great person.”

“He does that for everyone. He’d do that for the Fantasy Football cheater guy.”

Clint laughed. “Come on, Tony. What I’m trying to get at is that you are a good guy, I’m a good guy, and Steve believes in us. He likes me. But he loves you. That’s a big difference.”

Tony felt like the floor tilted and the bar spun and he hadn’t even touched the fizzy neon horror that sat in the glass in front of him. “You mean, like a teammate.”

Clint gave him a long, appraising look over. “Sure, whatever.” He downed his last shot and thumped Tony on the back. “Go, find Steve and get this team back together. And finish this mission.”

But Tony had no idea where Steve was. Or where he could start looking for him.

“Hey, boys, can anyone join in?” Kashmir’s voice interrupted behind them. She smiled at Tony as she walked up to lean against the bar. 

Tony glanced at Clint. “It’s a private party.”

“Oh? Who’s the guy?” she asked Tony, ignoring Clint.

“My assistant.”

“I have plans tonight and need someone who knows how to have fun join me.” She tilted her head and smiled coyly at Tony. “And I know you know how to have fun.”

Clint arched an eyebrow. “I’ll get right on those reports, Mr. Stark. Will we see you in the morning?” He stood and straightened up, snapping into the role of personal assistant. He took out his phone like he was about to take notes. 

“Um, yeah. And order breakfast in for the group again.”

“Yes, sir.” He tapped notes into his phone. Then he motioned to the bartender for the bill.

Tony turned back to Kashmir, who looked at him expectantly. “I’m calling it an early night,” he said. “Going out with you can be pricey.”

“Awww.” She frowned playfully at him. “Not all the time. Maybe I’ll give you a chance to win your bodyguard back.”

“I’ll have to think about that.” He noticed that Clint lingered unnoticed in a corner of the bar. Tony nodded at him to let him know he was okay.

“No one understands me here, not like you.” She ran her fingers up his arm and smiled at him. “I’m not whining, but you know what it’s like — all work, no play, even going to dinner or getting coffee with someone is just another business meeting.”

Tony cocked his head to the side, studying Kashmir in her uniform of slinky blue dress, fantastical eye makeup, and elaborate hairdo. No less an armor than his Iron Man armor. “I don’t think you’ll be alone for long.”

“But I want you, Tony,” she pouted. “Just one drink — and we can talk about your bodyguard. I’m not heartless. It’s all just harmless fun.”

The possibility of getting Steve back weighed heavily on him. He tipped his head back to evaluate Kashmir. Affecting boredom, she inspected her nails, then fluttered her eyelashes at him. Tony mentally rolled his eyes. He recognized what she was up to. Wasn’t pretty at all.

He made quick calculations about what he could get out of Kashmir about Steve. She had no information about who was selling the stolen Stark Tech. But Kashmir knew everyone and every rumor. As much as he now disliked her personally, he had to work with her for the mission. He turned around in his seat, elbows on the bar, oozing charm. “So what were you thinking?”

“Hmm, there’s this great bar not far from here that serves these glow in the dark drinks.”

“Pfft. Last year’s fad. They do that at my local coffee shop now.”

“Huh, picky tonight? How about this — I know a small intimate place around the corner that has the greatest noodle bowls. We could grab something there and then head out to a casino — in case you’re interested in a few more games of chance.”

“Lead on,” Tony said as he pushed off the bar.

Instead of heading out the main doors of the hotel, Kashmir headed towards a side corridor. She tugged at his arm. “This is a shortcut out the back of the hotel.”

Tony instinctively touched his phone to make sure it was still on. He didn’t have a good feeling about this even if the corridor was brightly lit and hotel staff milled about.

Kashmir nudged him. “Come on, silly, the staff use this hallway all the time. See — that’s room service over there. No biggie.”

They walked down the corridor, dodging fast-moving hotel staff pushing carts and passing through the service areas. Tony nearly stepped into the huge kitchen when Kashmir tugged on his sleeve again to direct him towards a brick-lined hallway. “This is the wine cellar — see that door.” She pointed to the dingy red door next to the modern walk-in wine storage. 

Felt like a trap. Smelt like a trap. Walked like a trap. Therefore, a trap. Before Tony could say something, Kashmir had opened the door and pulled him through into a broad alleyway. He nearly fell on a bike chained to the trash bin. 

Kashmir snapped into her phone, “Where are you? I have the target.”

“The target?” Tony asked. He tapped his phone to send out a distress signal. He had no idea who was listening. 

“Please shut up for once,” she begged. 

A dark van drove up the alley. That was seriously not good news. A number of Hand ninjas poured out of the van. Tony was trapped between the van and the wall. His first instinct was to summon the suit. But he had stowed the briefcase suit on the airplane, and even if the suit arrived in time, he had no idea how it was going to get to him. He was well and truly fucked. 

“Get in the van,” Kashmir hissed. 

“No, I think I’ll call it a night and head back to my room.” Tony kicked a couple of ninjas that ventured too close. He really should perfect that retractable glove repulsor. Be helpful in this type of situation. 

“Look, I do not have time for this. I’ve got a schedule and you have to cough up the code for the tech I borrowed from you.”

Tony looked for anything he could use a weapon. And then to make it all that more exciting, it started raining. Hard. The ninjas grabbed him, trying to drag him over to the van. He had to fight with everything he had because he shouldn’t get into that van at all. 

“You’re being difficult,” complained Kashmir. “Tony, just get in the van and my friends won’t have to persuade you. Khan was difficult and look where that got him.”

He threw a couple of punches at the ninjas, knocking down at least one of them. He had to outlast the ninjas long enough to be rescued by someone, anyone. Then he looked up to see Steve on a moped under the streetlights. Steve was magnificent on his crappy little moped. He should really be rocking a real motorcycle. 

On the other hand, despite the less than dignified transport, Steve threw himself into the battle against the ninjas. He hit and punched and kicked his way through them. Tony had already wedged himself in a doorway, ready to fend off any attack. Steve fought viciously to knock each and every ninja down. 

“Tony!” he shouted. 

“I’m fine. Just over here.”

No one could deny how amazing Steve looked in the rain with rivulets of water running down his body. Tony ordinarily would love to spend all the time in the world admiring Steve’s tight t-shirt in the rain. But there was no telling when more ninjas were arriving. Kashmir probably had the local ninja temp agency on call for those reasons. 

“My hero,” Tony said blithely when Steve arrived. “Oh, watch out for the woman with the gun. I didn’t see that a minute ago.”

“Stop right there.” Kashmir aimed a gun at them and blocked the main escape route. “Stand down so we can leave with Stark, and you can go home in one piece with the right number of holes.”

Steve stood in front of Tony as a shield. “We’re going. And now. I suggest you get out of the way.”

Kashmir fumbled with the gun and Steve darted forward, dragging Tony with him. He hip-checked Kashmir into the wall and made a beeline to the moped. Tony jumped on behind Steve. 

Steve peeled out into the night-time Madripoor traffic as fast as the moped could go. Tony was distracted for a few moments as he wrapped himself around Steve’s broad, muscular back. 

Once his heartbeat settled and they were a safe enough distance away from Kashmir and her van of evil, Tony said, “This is a moped.”

“It’s the fastest moped in Madripoor,” Steve pointed out as he zigzagged his way through the crowd.

“That’s what they all say to sell you a moped. Not a motorcycle.”

“Can’t risk the attention we’d get from a motorcycle.”

Tony suppressed a laugh. In a wet t-shirt, Steve would always be the center of attention, with or without a motorcycle. “Thanks for the save.”

“There’s a story. But first we need to get to the SHIELD safe house.”

Steve careened into new streets Tony didn’t recognize, except that they were speeding through a city neighborhood. “We’ll be there soon, Tony.”

“I hope so, before you kill us in traffic.”

Steve pulled into a side street and ditched the moped. “We have to walk a few more blocks. Maybe through that alley —”

“Or we could hail a cab.” Tony stepped out on the sidewalk and waved down a taxi. 

“Or we could do that,” Steve said, taking a deep breath and following Tony.

“Hey, come on. I got us a taxi.” 

They slid across the leather of the back seat of the mostly clean taxi. Tony shoved a lot of money at the driver, while Steve told him the address. Tony finally had a chance to catch his breath. 

“I’m glad I’m not a large stain on a back alley in Madripoor.”

“At least you’d have been a stain in the better part of the city.”

“Ha.”

Breathless and exhausted, Tony was soaked to the skin, even through his suit jacket and wool pants. Steve was no better off in his t-shirt and pants from his bodyguard suit. But he was delicious and hot against Tony’s body as they were jostled together in the taxi. He almost dropped his head on Steve’s shoulder, but then the taxi shuddered to a stop. 

“We’ve got a couple of blocks to go,” Steve said.

“Wait, what?”

“Vennema is still looking for us. Who knows what she’s willing to pay to find us?”

“Aw, right.” Crap. And it was still pouring rain. 

The sidewalks were nearly empty now that it was after midnight by Tony’s reckoning. He hadn’t imagined this part of Madripoor, a quiet, city neighborhood with lights on in apartments and businesses closed up tight. He felt conspicuous in the dark, but Steve kept walking at a fast clip.

“We’re here.” Steve stopped in front of a small apartment building. He went to the back where he removed a brick paver to get a key. 

“How did you know about this place?” Tony asked as they climbed the stairs.

“Memorized resources in the city. Figured we might need it.”

Once inside the apartment, Steve turned and crowded him against the wall, burying his head in a surprised Tony’s shoulder. “I could have lost you.”

“Not that I’m complaining, but what the hell, Steve?”

Steve lifted his head and looked right into Tony’s eyes. “I didn’t know if I had arrived in time. If Vennema got you into the van …”

Tony shuddered, even in the safety of Steve’s arms. “Yeah, it wouldn’t have ended well.”

Steve’s eyes fell to Tony’s mouth and then back to his eyes. Tony slumped against Steve. He was wrung out, exhausted and overwhelmed. He’d be able to sort it all out with sleep or coffee, he didn’t much care which one. Steve rested his hand carefully on Tony’s neck and held him gently as their breath evened out. 

“Hey, we’ve faced death over and over again. Why does this time rate the Steve Rogers Hug?” Tony asked. 

“Losing you. Knowing I could have stopped it.” Steve ran a hand up and down Tony’s back. Tony could see the brightness of Steve’s eyes in the reflected light from the street lights outside. “Everything.”

Tony didn’t want to move, even if he and Steve were in wet clothes and the leather of his soaked shoes pinched. “You forgive me for what happened?”

“What happened?” Steve asked.

“Kashmir — the poker game —”

Steve let Tony go. “You don’t have to apologize. We can talk more in the morning. You should get some sleep — I think we’re in for a bumpy ride.”

Tony nodded grimly. “Yeah. At least now we know the enemy.”

~~~~~

It was morning. Really early in the morning.

Tony knew that because it felt early with the sun streaming through the broken blinds across his face. He yawned and stretched and rubbed his eyes. The thin, scratchy sheets and lumpy mattress reminded him that he wasn’t in his luxury hotel suite. He pulled a pillow over his face in denial about having to get up. He doubted that the safe house had strong enough coffee for him. 

He could hear Steve walking in the other room of the tiny apartment. Still sore and bruised from the fight the night before, Tony swung his feet off the bed and yawned for a few moments. He found the jeans and t-shirt Steve had left for him. Which was considerate, considering that the suit he wore last night was a ruined heap on the only chair in the bedroom. He finger-combed his thick hair into place. Not entirely sure he was ready to take on the day.

Well, he couldn’t avoid Steve forever. Taking a deep breath, he put on a cheerful face and headed out to meet his teammate.

Steve stood at the counter wearing only a pair of tight jeans. Tony would never get tired of looking at Steve, even if he was just reading the paper and drinking coffee. His eyes lingered over the acres of beautiful, glowing skin and chiseled hard muscle. Undeniably Steve, the guy who beat up at least five armed ninja-thugs and snatched Tony away into the night. An avenging angel grounded here on earth.

“Hey, you’re awake. Sleep well?” Steve asked. He handed Tony a bag of cream-filled pastries and steamed buns, and a large coffee fresh from the counter coffee machine. Tony sat down heavily in the bar chair across from Steve and drank the coffee.

“Okay, I guess. Not all that great for a dead guy.”

“They weren’t planning on killing you,” Steve stated. “They were dragging you somewhere. The question is whether they tracked us here. We might have to get moving after we’ve had breakfast.” He reached out to squeeze Tony’s hand. Like Tony would disappear like a mirage if Steve didn’t reassure himself of Tony’s existence.

For some reason, Tony was disappointed. He had geared himself up for the long lecture he was going to get from Steve about risking his life and making bad choices. But now, nothing. Steve just stood there picking out another bun for breakfast. No frown of disapproval, no comments or critique, nothing. 

“So, about Kashmir — she asked me out for a drink — and I didn’t think —” Tony offered. In case Steve was waiting for him to apologize for everything over the past few days. He’d tried last night but Steve didn’t want to hear it then.

“She’s behind everything,” Steve said. “She hired those guys to grab you in the alley. For someone who was smart enough to steal your tech she woefully underestimated you.”

Steve’s news hit Tony hard than it should have. He’d heard what Kashmir said in the alley, but to hear Steve repeat it got under his skin. He’d thought he was over bad judgement calls when it came to people. “Yeah. Guess it all makes sense now. How did you find out?”

“After you left, she had her security team drag me downstairs and lock me in a storage unit. Her team grilled me about us, why you were really here, about you.”

Tony shuddered to think that he had handed Steve over to people who tortured him. He swallowed hard. “Steve, I’m sorry. I didn’t think that she would’ve —”

“Tony, I’ve been through worse, a lot worse. Clint and Hulk questioning us about who ate all the peanut butter in the Tower is worse than Vennema’s hired thugs. I was mostly bored.”

He nodded. Steve letting him off the hook for his failures should feel better than it did. Instead, he felt downright queasy.

Steve continued. “Something went wrong with her demo of your tech. I don’t know what happened — all I know is that she was in a bad mood when she demanded that I tell her about your plans here. I put together that she was planning to kidnap you, or worse. I broke out, found you, and got us to this SHIELD safe house.” 

Tony had barely noticed anything about the apartment when they arrived last night. He couldn’t tell immediately what made it a safe house, but he appreciated the change of clothes, bed to sleep in, and food. Maybe that was all that was needed. 

Steve pulled over a laptop. “It’s a secure connection. I haven’t been able to contact Natasha or Sam or Clint or anyone else.”

“I was at the bar with Clint last night — he said something about the team needing to be together or work together.”

“Hmmm. He’s got a point.” Steve tapped on the laptop keys. “Still no news.” He closed the cover.

“You know, this whole thing was stupid from the get-go.” He should eat more, but the coffee burned down his throat and he couldn’t finish the excellent pastry.

Steve studied Tony thoughtfully over the brim of his coffee mug. “You’re the key to this whole mission. The rest of us are here to provide you cover and protection.”

“Well, I keeping making things worse,” Tony said with a grimace. “I’ve barely been in touch with anyone, and then I hand you over to the enemy.”

“You summed up exactly why I hate spying and working for Fury. This is exactly how Fury expected the mission to go. But we’ll do it differently.”

“What?”

“Fury would want us to report in separately and then he tells us what to do. It doesn’t work that way for Avengers.” 

“You want to take down Kashmir.”

“We have to. She’s smart, resourceful and dangerous and has it in for you.”

“And in it mainly for the money.” Tony stroked his chin. “I bet you have a plan.”

“We need the team. The Expo ends tomorrow.”

“And today is the day for big deals. If you don’t close today, you can lose sales. It's a lot harder to make sales on the marginally legal stuff to people who shouldn’t be buying it to begin with.”

Tony took a bite of pastry, saying, “So, Is this a smash-and-nab deal? Or something less dramatic? Because we’ll need less dramatic going for Vennema. I need to know everything she’s taken, what she’s sold and anything else we can find.”

“We’ll come up with something,” Steve agreed. Steve folded up the newspaper and collected the dishes. “We should meet outside the hotel. You’re the tech genius — maybe you can get in touch with everyone?”

Tony eyed the laptop. “What else is here?”

“There’s a closet with SHIELD equipment over there.” Steve pointed to a door nearby.

Tony sat by the living room windows as he cannibalized the SHIELD standard-issue laptop and phones. He noticed that the third-floor apartment was on a street corner and the windows gave an excellent view of both streets. It was barely seven am and the streets below were mostly empty. As far as he could tell, they were in a residential neighborhood, far from the city center. He could see the fancy skyscrapers and the brand-new tall apartments buildings that lined the seashore in the distance. 

Steve brought him more coffee. Regretfully, Steve had put on a t-shirt after his shower. But the coffee made up for it a little. “How’s it going?”

“Getting close. I think if I can get a encrypted message to Natasha and Sam, they can contact everyone else and round them up and deal with the consequences. I know they’ll have their cell phones on. But Kashmir might have patched my SHIELD tracking code she stole — I have to outthink that.”

“Scott is glued to his phone —”

Tony shrugged. “But it’s Scott. He could be in the middle of negotiating with an AIM guy over a bar tab.”

“Anything I can help with?” Steve pulled over a table chair close to Tony’s couch.

“All you need to do is sit there and look pretty.” Immediately, Tony regretted opening his mouth.

“You think I look pretty?” Steve asked, with a gleam in his eye.

Well, that was a loaded question. Tony replied, “Today you do. Maybe you’d prefer ‘handsome’ or ‘distinguished.’ But you might have to work hard to get to that level.”

Steve snorted. “So that’s how it is.”

“Hmmm.” Tony hit the point where he needed to focus on coding. Impatient with the distraction, he typed furiously before he lost the momentum of the moment. 

But Steve had gotten up to check the apartment and scan the streets. Standing at the window, he asked, “How much longer?”

“I’m checking the code now, then we can try contacting the team.” He sat back into the couch and tinkered with the phone innards he’d cobbled together. “Do you have a plan?”

“How do you feel about having another drink with Kashmir?” Steve asked.

Tony scowled, his mouth turned down in disgust. “I don’t want to see her again. But she is the source of all our problems.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to do anything you don’t want to do. I mean, she did use your crush against you.”

“Excuse me?”

Steve froze. “Maybe Natasha could meet her —” he said, plunging ahead.

“For the record, I never had a crush on Kashmir Vennema,” Tony said firmly.

Steve paused, uncharacteristically hesitant. “But you were everywhere with her. You were out all night with her. After you lost at poker, you were unhappy — it seems to me like you were disappointed that she turned out to be, um, a person of, um, different character than you expected.”

Tony groaned and raked his hand over his face. “Steve. Damn it.”

Steve continued. “You should be happy, Tony. You deserve everything good in the world. We might not agree on everything all the time. But you are the best thing in the world to me. And I don’t like to see people toy with you like you don’t mean anything.”

“Okay, stop.” Tony took a deep breath. The arc reactor glowed brightly as it strove to regulate Tony’s heart as it beat too fast. He couldn’t be hearing what Steve was saying. “I didn’t like what Kashmir did — win you in a game of poker — because I failed you. You’re my friend and I lost you. In poker.”

“You can’t be mad at yourself for that. You didn’t fail me, Tony — neither of us thought Vennema was the threat. And if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have known you were in trouble and we wouldn’t know what she is up to.”

Tony rubbed his chin as he picked through Steve’s words. He never really listened when Steve told him what a great person he was. He never learned to take compliments well from sincere, honest people. People like Steve. 

“Look — you’re being great about this. Honestly. But I haven’t been all that great over the past few days.”

Puzzled, Steve said, “I — I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t see anything —”

“I’m not a good person, Steve. I struggle all the time. I’ve been tempted and …” Tony hung his head.

Steve moved the equipment off the couch so that he could sit down next to Tony. Tony felt the dip in the cushions. The couch was old and the cushions flat, and when Steve sat, Tony bounced into him. Steve didn’t recoil or shift away, but put an arm around Tony’s shoulders. “I struggle too. It’s not easy to do the right thing.”

Tony’s voice rose. “No, you never —”

“I do, Tony, I do. All the time. Every day I have to do the right thing, be the best I can be. For one thing, I didn’t boot Vennema out a window when I had the opportunity. That was a hard choice.”

“Considering what we know now —”

“I thought about it because I didn’t like how she looked at you. I thought you were interested in her. And I didn’t want you to get hurt. Those aren’t exactly noble thoughts.”

Tony scoffed. “No, Steve, you’re too good to be mixed up with me.”

Steve’s warm fingers lifted his chin, his thumb brushing against his lips. “Tony -- You’re always working so hard to overcome your past. If I have to, I’ll spend years telling you that you’re a good person, until you believe it.”

Something was happening, Tony could feel it. He couldn’t believe it -- that Steve was about to kiss him, in the cold light of day on a bumpy sofa in a safe house in Madripoor. He wanted Steve to kiss him so badly. He watched as Steve leaned closer. He felt Steve’s breath on his skin and had a second to duck, but didn’t. Steve kissed him. Tony responded, passionately, yearning with all his heart for this moment to last forever, kissing back as hard as he could.

“You have no idea how much I care about you,” Tony blurted out as they broke apart.

Steve’s hand cupped his shoulder. “I, uh, didn’t think that you would ever care for me. That way.”

“I’m going to constantly overthink this, you know?”

“Probably.” Steve smiled and dropped his hand.

“And, for the record, that’s not how I imagined that would go,” Tony said, sitting back.

“Oh?”

“I mean, I’ve been thinking about it — kissing you that is — Stop with that goofy grin, it doesn’t look good on you at all.”

Steve laced his fingers with Tony’s. “I know we don’t have much time to talk and you need to finish up, um, whatever you are doing, but I want you to know that I’m glad you kissed me.” He bent down and kissed Tony again. “And I’m glad I kissed you —”

“And we need to keep doing that as often as we can,” Tony finished. He sighed. “Seriously, Steve, people are going to think you’ve lost your mind if we’re dating.”

“So what? They don’t know you like I know you. And think about it. People are always excited to see you because you do great things. Like those people at Ten Rings party.”

“Great things can be bad or good. I’ve crossed a lot of lines in my life and made dangerous, destructive weapons.”

Steve smiled. He reached over and brushed the hair out of Tony’s eyes. “You fight. You try, constantly. You’re stubborn and brilliant and believe in the future. Why wouldn’t I love you for all of that? If you’ll believe me about Thanos, believe me on this.”

“Hmm. About the Thanos thing ….”

Steve opened his mouth, then paused and checked his watch. “We have to get going.” He kissed Tony’s forehead. “We can talk later. We need to shut Vennema down today.”

Dazed by the light in Steve’s blue eyes, Tony finally answered. “Right. I'm about ready.”

~~~~~

Natasha knew one good thing about SHIELD. If a mission failed, Fury wouldn't send you to Siberia in the depths of winter, hundreds of miles from civilization with only a nail file and best wishes for a return home. That didn’t mean that Fury wouldn’t be disappointed with a bad outcome. She was already gearing herself up for Fury’s wrath. No one had a good lead on the stolen tech as far as she knew, and she hadn’t seen anyone since yesterday afternoon.

Except for Bruce, sitting across from her contemplating his breakfast, and he had the least amount of information of them all. Sam and Scott were off somewhere, and Thor was trying to locate Tony.

This morning she had found a quiet, out-of-the-way restaurant that overlooked the hotel’s outdoor pools. Despite the large size there were few people in the restaurant, one person at a nearby table absorbed in their cell phone or laptop. Natasha felt safe working on her mission notes. She sipped her coffee, which turned out to be hideous. Likely why the place was nearly empty.

“Bruce, you didn't hear or find anything?” Natasha asked again.

“No,” Bruce replied. “I heard a lot of gossip about Damocles Research. It’s a new think-tank that popped up a few years ago, supposedly producing cutting-edge technology -- whatever they mean by that.” Bruce rolled his eyes. “The word is that they steal ideas from other companies. I met this guy who got real burnt by them -- they hire people from legit places and pick their brains about their projects and dump them afterwards. They did a presentation yesterday and their drone fleet attacked the audience.” He showed her a video of the presentation with everyone running and screaming from the drones. “The guys at the seminar I went to last night couldn’t stop laughing about it.”

Natasha watched the video again. “Anything about Damocles Express?”

Bruce furrowed his brow as he peeled his orange. “Only that you shouldn’t buy from them. They sell crap parts. Other R&D guys said to avoid them like the plague. No wonder they spun off the R&D department into Damocles Research -- not that Damocles Research is any better.”

She nearly dropped her coffee mug. “I’ve been dealing with a lot of questions about counterfeit parts -- and the source of the parts is nearly always Damocles Express.” She scanned over her notes. “And some complaints involve tech that isn’t supposed to be on the market yet. Maybe there’s a connection to the stolen tech here.” She made a quick list of all the questions. “The key is Damocles Research -- they hired a Stark Industries person or got their hands on proprietary Stark tech. Something like that.”

“Simple, clean and above board,” Bruce said. 

“We have to get the team together --”

A text flashed across her phone: “Avengers Assemble. Airplane.” 

Bruce smiled with relief. “Oh thank god, I’m tired of going to presentations. If I had to sit through another terrible PowerPoint, I was going to go green.”

~~~~~

Natasha and Bruce ran into Sam and Scott in the lobby. Sam filled them in about what they had learned about the drone presentation and that the drones had been built on an incomplete Stark prototype. 

After grabbing a cab, Natasha said, “Great -- now we know that Damocles Research is behind all this. Where’s Thor?”

“Taking a shortcut to the airport,” Sam reported. “He took Clint with him.” 

“Guess we blew our cover,” Natasha muttered. “No news from Tony or Steve?”

“Tony sent the text,” Scott replied. “So he must know something.”

Tony and Steve were already in armor and uniform when Natasha and crew arrived. “Glad you could join us this morning,” Tony joked as the team assembled in the main cabin of the airplane. “On today’s agenda, we’re going to arrest Kashmir Vennema and her operation for selling stolen Stark Tech.”

“What did you find out, Tony?” Natasha asked. 

“Everything. She stole the tech in order to sell it, attempted to assassinate Gene Khan, and tried to torture Steve. So she’s definitely one of the bad guys.”

The plan was elegant in its simplicity and directness. Acting on behalf of SHIELD and hopefully with the cooperation of the Madripoor police, they would converge on the Sovereign Hotel, surround Kashmir and make the appropriate arrests with as little firepower and collateral damage as possible. Scott had heard about a super-secret Damocles Research presentation, only open to certain people, which was ideal timing. 

Steve laid out the plan of attack. Clint was on the phone lining up clearances with SHIELD and the local police. The timing of the attack had to be perfect since someone, somewhere would tip off the hotel and Kashmir as soon as they found out.

Steve concluded, “And we’re to take out Vennema and her mercenaries and ninjas.”

“I have a list of the Damocles Research staff attending the conference,” Sam piped up.

“Where did you find that?” Natasha asked as she leaned over to took at Sam’s laptop.

“Scott. He read the registration packet.”

“Didn't everyone?” Scott said, looking around.

The team rolled out. Thor flew ahead to keep an eye on the hotel and to report in case Kashmir left. Steve tapped Tony’s shoulder. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah. Everything feels right all of a sudden.” Standing here with his team, ready to take down the person who had stolen his tech meant a lot. “She won’t know what hit her.” Tony smiled, feeling an ease he hadn’t felt in days.

Tony and Sam were next to go, since their main objective was to round up the stolen tech and provide back up for Thor. Then the rest of the team would arrest Kashmir and her associates as she left. Hulk would join in if heavier firepower was needed.

Arriving at the hotel, Natasha asked Clint, “Finally happy?”

“Yeah, crappy mission over, an afternoon of fun activity, Tony not in the dumps anymore, what else could we ask for?”

“A roomful of ninjas?” Scott asked as a squad of ninjas rounded the corner and advanced upon them

“At last I can hit someone that annoys me,” Natasha said as she twirled a baton and headed for the ninjas. 

Tony headed for Kashmir’s room. He knew with his photographic memory what he would likely see there. Hopefully she still had left out the laptops.

Sam fretted next to him. “She could have packed up after the drone failure.”

“Do you think that the drone tech was the only thing she was selling?” Tony fried the door lock with his repulsor and pushed the door open. “I bet she’s been stealing from every major and minor tech company in existence. AIM, Hydra, Ten Rings, you name it.”

Once inside, Sam jumped on the laptops scattered around the room. “Got to work fast,” Sam muttered as he opened the first laptop. 

Tony was miles ahead of him as he hacked into the room’s wifi. Over the comms he heard the constant stream of communications from the team fighting the ninjas and mercenaries. He grinned as Steve secured the lobby, main and side entrances and worked with the police to block the hotel loading dock and exit doors. Scott was rounding up Damocles tech guys right and left. 

“Man of Iron, we have not seen your enemy in the midst of our battle,” Thor announced. “I will hunt for her in the city.”

“Could she be coming back here?” Sam asked. He had taken off his cowl and visor. His fingers were flying over keyboards as he searched for tech. “We could use Widow.”

“Right.” Kashmir was probably heading to the airport at that moment. Tony opened his comm. “Widow, report for computer work upstairs. If you can spare her, Cap.”

Tony heard a few satisfying thumps as Natasha said, “I’m on my way.”

Setting down the helmet and gauntlets on the bar, he rummaged through the suite for any electronic device that could store data. The suite was stocked like a candy story of electronics. And a lot of it was stolen or counterfeit, especially from Stark Industries. 

“Uh, Iron Man?” Sam said as the front door slammed open.

“Widow here?”

“What the hell is going on?” Kashmir shouted angrily. She aimed a gun at a frozen Sam. “Leave. Now. Get out of here.”

“What -- and break up the party? We were just getting started,” Tony replied. “What a shame.”

“Stop it!” Kashmir tossed her head. “You’re ruining everything.”

“Not bad for a washed-up tech guy, I must say. Considering it’s so hard for me to get around due to my advanced age.” Tony circled the room slowly to draw her attention to him and away from Sam.

Over the comms he heard the team was on their way and Thor had made a u-turn back to the hotel. Kashmir couldn’t escape.

“You need to stop right now. This is against the law.”

“Stealing my tech is against the law.”

“Not here,” she said with a smirk. “In Madripoor the law is on my side. And I have insurance.” She held up a small EMP device. “All I have to do is freeze your suit and hand you over to the police. I’m sure the Chancellor will have a lot to say about an unauthorized Avengers raid.”

Sam shifted slightly out of the way of the gun. She snapped, “Stop moving or I’ll stop you permanently.” She turned her attention back to Tony. “I’ve been three steps ahead of you this whole time.”

“Whatever. Keep thinking that if it helps you sleep at night.” Steve and company were a few floors away and Thor was likely hovering outside the window.

“The Stark Probability Engine -- it’s a great weapon and I’ve used it against you.”

“That’s what you built your tech on?” Tony laughed. “Outdated technology I’ve improved on a thousand times over since I first built it? Now who’s the dinosaur?”

“Iron Man!” Steve and Thor shouted as Cap burst through the door at the same time as Thor crashed through the window. 

Tony walked over to take the gun out of Kashmir’s hand. “You need to be better than a common thief to run with the big boys and girls.”

Kashmir only bared her teeth as Natasha handily tied her wrists and propelled her out of the room. 

~~~~~

Outside the hotel, Chancellor Tedja approached Natasha and Steve as they watched the local police bundling up Kashmir’s mercenaries. “What is going on here?”

Natasha shook his hand. “Chancellor Tedja -- this is a SHIELD operation in conjunction with the local police.”

“SHIELD has no authority here.”

“Sir, we were on a mission to recover stolen technology from Kashmir Vennema when we uncovered her plot to assassinate Gene Khan, which nearly succeeded.” Natasha cleverly went for the angle that would get the Chancellor’s attention.

Tedja stroked his chin and looked thoughtfully at the police vans. “Such accusations are serious. Mr. Khan is a beloved public figure in our principality. We cannot permit dangerous outside forces to attack our people. It would be best if you could remove the persons involved. Quietly, though -- cooperation with SHIELD would be a violation of our principles of neutrality. The Prince would be most displeased.”

“Understood, Chancellor,” Steve agreed.

“I love Madripoor,” Natasha said in a neutral tone.

~~~~~

The best thing, besides busting a corporate spy ring and finishing a successful mission, was that the team was too exhausted to say anything about Tony lounging against Steve and stealing the occasional kiss.

Scott dumped a pile of knickknacks, buttons, pens, stress balls and flyers on the floor. “I could always use the pens, but the rest of this is crap. Want a beehive stress ball?” He threw a yellow thing at Sam.

“AIM was giving these out?”

“Yeah, they were the hottest thing besides the ice cream treats that Steel Corp was handing out. AIM was cleaned out within the first hour of the Expo opening.”

“Evil science-terrorist think tanks hand out stress-relieving toys?” Bruce asked.

“You gotta hand things out at your booth if you want to draw the crowds,” Scott said. He handed a stack of business cards to Natasha. “Could you use those?”

Natasha shuffled through the pile. “Great, Scott. SHIELD can use the leads. You got cards from almost every company at the Expo.”

“Yeah, Ten Rings was the only place not hiring. I was offered four jobs, recruited to apply for two more and given leads for lots of upcoming job openings. Who knew being an IT guy from Stark Industries was a job magnet?”

“I’ve got great people, what can I say?” Tony said. “They’re always being recruited.”

Sam asked, “So we know that Vennema was behind the tech thefts. What did she actually steal? It wasn’t clear what she was selling at the demo. There was the drone accident so we never found out.”

Tony reluctantly sat up. He glanced over at Steve. Hmm, was it too early to go on a long weekend trip? Because they could totally do that when they got back to New York. But Sam needed answers. “She stole the prototype of a probability software I’m developing for SHIELD. The software is based on a version of the old Stark Probability Engine — like an algorithm that uses communications to pinpoint actions by groups like AIM and Ten Rings. I ran into problems as I was programming the drone software. That’s why Kashmir grabbed me — she thought she could force me to finish the coding.”

“She tried to sell the unfinished program to Khan,” Natasha added. “He immediately saw the flaws so she decided to take him out before he could tell anyone.”

“I wonder what else she stole,” Bruce mused. 

“From what I could tell, it looks like SHIELD tech and few other bits and pieces. Nothing completed. So I’m thinking that she did a smash and grab. Anything she got from a rogue employee would be completely out of date by now.”

Natasha pondered. “SHIELD will investigate what role Damocles Research played. Unless it really is nothing more than a front for stolen tech and counterfeit parts. Stark Industries probably isn’t their only victim.”

“Looks like Kashmir’s not making her sales quota this month,” Tony said. He checked his phone. “Hey, the stock prices are still going up. Positive news about our latest agri-technology developments. Wait, there are a few stories about competitors spreading nasty rumors about changes in Stark Industry directions. SHIELD moves fast.”

Clint and Bruce both yawned. “I’m going to grab some shuteye in the back,” Clint said. He toed Scott, who was all but dozing in his seat. The three of them headed to the cabin in the back.

“I’ve got reports to file,” Natasha said. “And vacation to plan.” She patted Tony on the shoulder. “You did good, Stark. Didn’t mess up the mission. That’s got to earn some points with Fury.” 

“Yeah, just what I wanted. To Impress the one-eyed pirate king of SHIELD.” Tony put away his phone. “Want to watch a movie?” he asked Steve.

“I’m still here, you know,” Sam protested. 

“Fine, you get a half-vote on the movie.”

Sam stood up. “It’s a long trip back to New York. I’ll find a spot in the back to take a nap.”

“Huh, just us now,” Tony said. He looked back to see Natasha, wearing a set of over-sized headphones, curled up in the corner with her computer. 

“Strange how that happened. So what were you thinking for a movie?”

Tony let Steve put his arm around his shoulders. He could get used to this fast. “Friday, surprise me.”

“You bet, boss.”

The AI pulled up a Transformers film. Tony couldn’t figure out which one it was. Maybe it didn’t matter.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this one before,,” Steve said.

“We’ve seen all these films several times. But like Sam said, it’s a long trip back to New York.”

They watched the movie in silence and Tony started to nod off. Steve was warm and comfortable to lean against. “I wanted to ask you about something I saw on the helicarrier before the mission,” he said sleepily.

“Hmmm, what?”

“Why did you spend all that time straightening out your cafeteria bill?”

“Oh that. I didn’t want to get the cashier in trouble — I see Nicole all the time, she shows me pictures of her kids — and I didn’t know if they had to pay back any shortages. She’s been having a tough time with medical bills. So I had to say something.”

Tony squeezed Steve’s hand. “That makes sense.”

“You would have done the same,” Steve said. He twirled his fingers in Tony’s hair. 

“I appreciate your faith in me, but ….”

Steve kissed the top of his head. “I’ve seen the good things that you do, Tony. Scholarships, after-school programs, awards for science fairs, charity gifts and fundraisers. The way you take care of the team. All of it. That means you’re good in my book.”

Tony bit back a sarcastic comment about spending money like a drunken sailor and buying back his soul one charity gala at a time. “You’re just being nice.”

“You want to wait for the next rainy alley with a dozen bad guys to prove something?”

“No, you should just know what you’re getting into —”

“We already talked about it, Tony. I haven't fought and lived by your side all these years without knowing who you are.”

“It’s easy for me to fall back into bad habits …”

“Told you spy missions were the worst. I don’t see you ever going back to what you were doing before Iron Man. Not in a million years. And if you think that I’m some paragon of virtue, why not cut yourself some slack if the paragon of virtue thinks you’re the tops.”

Tony elbowed Steve. “No old-timey language. We’ve talked about this.”

“If I can’t tease my best guy —”

Tony laughed and buried his head in Steve’s shoulder. “Okay, fine, whatever. You’re stuck with me. It’s not the end of the world.”

“I still have to take you out on a proper date.”

“We’re watching a movie now. Doesn’t that count? Even if Friday has rotten taste in movies.”

“I want to show you off. Let people know you’re my guy and how lucky I am that you’d go on a date with me.”

“Ugh. I had no idea how sappy you really are. How am I ever going to live if you keep complimenting me like this?”

“A long, long time, if I have anything to say about it.”

Tony drifted into sleep, a smile on his lips, listening to the deep rumble of Steve’s breathing and the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all, being in love with Steve. They’d have to improve the quality of their date-night films though. He’d insist on it.


End file.
